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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25653424">Nuanced Nuisance</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sansos/pseuds/sansos'>sansos</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Salvation [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Alternate Universe - Corporate, Blood, Drugs, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Guns, Mentions of Death, Reader-Insert, Swearing, Violence, kidnap, warnings include</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:13:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>27,559</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25653424</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sansos/pseuds/sansos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Thanks to the arrival of an ominous letter threatening your life, you now find yourself stuck with a bodyguard scrutinizing every potential hazard and danger. But wait: since when were bodyguards such a massive pain to deal with?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kita Shinsuke &amp; Reader, Miya Atsumu &amp; Reader, Miya Atsumu/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Salvation [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2044573</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>228</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Of Letters and Threats</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for an anon request for my event on Tumblr!<br/>Prompt: You're going to die. I'm going to die. We're all going to die. Just not today.</p>
    </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter’s got a threatening letter in it, but I don’t think there’s any other warnings that would apply (If you spot anything, let me know!)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Your hands trembled as you grabbed anxiously for the card sitting on your desk.</p>
<p>
  <em>“Stop the negotiations with Inarizaki if you wish to live.”</em>
</p>
<p>A knock on your door pulled your senses back to the present —back to where you stood in front of your desk. The notecard had slipped out of your hands from the sudden interruption, and you quickly brushed it underneath your bag to hide it from view as you cleared your throat to invite your guest in.</p>
<p>A pair of red stilettos peeked into the room as your secretary, dressed in a pressed white pencil dress with her hair perfectly slicked up without a strand out of place, appeared by the doorway.</p>
<p>“President, Kita Shinsuke from Inarizaki is here for your meeting today,” she announced by the door, leaning ever so slightly on the wooden fixture to keep it propped open.</p>
<p>“Thanks for the reminder, Sawada,” you said, pulling open your drawer and grabbing the files on top. “Let him know I’ll be there in a few minutes.”</p>
<p>Sawada nodded her head, her perfectly lined red lips curving into a polite smile, and turned around to head back to her desk. Your eyes flitted briefly back onto the note card swept underneath your bag, and with a slight grimace, you picked it up and slipped it in-between the pages of your folder.</p>
<p>Kita was an old friend of sorts, and the chief financial officer of Inarizaki, he was the main reason why your start-up had managed to attract the attention of one of the biggest investment companies in the nation to begin with. Should the acquisition deal fall through, he would be the one who stood to lose the most, making him the least probable person to have sent you the message. He could be trusted.</p>
<p>Besides, if you were being targeted solely because of the deal with Inarizaki, then he was likely to be in danger as well. You had no reason not to share this with him.</p>
<p>
  <em>Worse comes to worst, it’s as they say: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. There’s nothing to lose.</em>
</p>
<p>You pushed open the double doors of the meeting room, catching the attention of the grey haired man who had been sitting in one of the chairs idly scrolling through his phone. He looked up as you walked in and gave you a curt nod, pulling out the chair next to them as you made your way over.</p>
<p>“(l/n), I hope you’ve been well.”</p>
<p>You smiled as you sat down next to him, placing your files down on the table in front of you. “I have, hope the same goes for you as well. It feels like we haven’t spoken in forever, hasn’t it?”</p>
<p>“I guess a week is quite a long time,” he chuckled as he slipped his phone back in his coat pocket, resting an arm on the long mahogany table in front of him. “I did miss your jokes.”</p>
<p>You smiled as you opened up your clipboard, pulling out the freshly printed agreement that you had drafted the night before. “Well, they are the best after all,” you smirked. “Sorry I’ve been so busy, there’s just been a lot going on.”</p>
<p>Kita lightly shook his head to dismiss your apology. “You’re busy, I’m busy, we’re all busy. It’s just the way it is sometimes,” he assured you as he reached for a pen from his coat pocket. He looked over and paused, as if something had caught his notice. With his eyebrows creased and his eyes laden with both curiosity and concern, he dropped his arm back down to rest against the table and leaned in to take a closer look at your expression.</p>
<p>“Something on your mind?”</p>
<p>Slowly, you nodded your head, the hint of hesitation that persisted in the back of your mind not going unnoticed by your consciousness. Kita was your friend; he wouldn’t betray you. You were certain of the fact.</p>
<p>You could trust him.</p>
<p>Gingerly, you opened up the folder and retrieved the index card slipped between your papers, sliding the message in cursive script over to Kita’s spot at the table. “This was on my desk this morning,” you confided, your hands suddenly clamming up as your eyes laid sight on the sentence once more.</p>
<p>Wordlessly, he picked up the white card, his fingers carefully running across the red ink, thenbalancing the paper against his fingertips as he turned it around and back again. He exhaled slowly and looked back at you with a worried frown.</p>
<p>“Do you have any idea who it might be?”</p>
<p>You shook your head, your teeth grazing your lips. “I found it on my desk just as I came in today,” you disclosed, “it seems like someone’s against the merger.”</p>
<p>Kita leaned back in his chair, his fist pressed against his lips and his eyes deep in thought. “Our merger would be detrimental to a lot of people,” he thought out loud, the words rolling off his tongue slowly and cautiously. “I can think of a lot of people who would want to stand in our way.”</p>
<p>He sat back up and unlocked his phone, his fingers fluttering above the screen. “Inarizaki will arrange for a bodyguard to protect you while we try and figure this out,” he announced as he tapped on the blue icon to send his message out. You shook your head furiously at the arrangement, your eyes wide and cheeks red, having been flustered by the offer.</p>
<p>“Kita, I appreciate it, I really do, but I can’t. I really can’t,” you protested. “I can’t have you arranging for all this for me. I can have my own company do it—“</p>
<p>“—Just let me take care of you,” Kita laughed, interrupting your plea. “You’re going to be part of Inarizaki soon anyways, so don’t worry about it.”</p>
<p>In all the years you’ve known the man, you’ve had to learn the hard way that arguing with Kita often ended up a pointless fight. You let out an exasperated cry as you slumped back into your chair with your hands covering your face, the poise and elegance from earlier disappearing as you relented and gave in.</p>
<p>“Okay fine, you’re the boss,” you conceded as Kita pulled his pen back out from his coat pocket, uncapping it to sign the document in front of him.</p>
<p>“And that I am,” he said, sliding the document back towards you, his eyes disappearing behind a satisfied grin.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I promise you that Atsumu will show up next chapter. Scout's honor!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. An Unwanted Introduction</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Kita, I thought we were friends.”</p><p>“We are,” he said with a nod. “Great friends even, if I may.”</p><p>“You may, but please do tell me why you found that <em>thing</em> to be my bodyguard,” you exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the blond in front of you. “He’s the type I need bodyguarding <em>for</em>!”</p><p>The man in front of you scoffed, taking a step closer to you and sneering down at you from his height above. “Literally here, y’know? I’ll have ya know that I’m a pro, ‘kay sugarbuns? Rest assured.”</p><p>Your face contorted into one of absolute disgust while the man leaned back and let out a hearty laugh, clearly having been amused by your reaction. “Oh, yer <em>so</em> highstrung,” he turned to face Kita, “Kita-san, she’s a real riot,” he reeled as he gave the man a friendly pat.</p><p>“Atsumu’s the best there is, I promise,” Kita assured you while batting off Atsumu’s hand from his jacket. “I wouldn’t bring him over and tolerate him soiling my jacket otherwise.”</p><p>You glowered, looking your new bodyguard from head to toe in obvious contempt. Perhaps he <em>owned</em> the outfit for the part —white shirt, freshly ironed pants, black jacket, black tie— but he certainly did not <em>look</em> the part. His tie was loosely knotted and hung loosely below the collar, the top buttons of his shirt were undone leaving his collarbones in plain sight, and his bleach blond hair was styled with such precision you couldn’t help by wonder exactly how much time and hair wax had gone wasted this morning to achieve the hairstyle.</p><p>No, this person <em>definitely</em> did not give off the feeling of protection and reassurance a bodyguard was supposed to —heck, he barely looked like he knew what the word “professional” even meant to begin with.</p><p>“Atsumu, fix your collar,” Kita instructed the man as he removed his own coat to brush at the spot the blond had touched earlier. With a sigh, Atsumu relented, his fingers fiddling with his shirt buttons as he grumbled complaints of “all ma hard work wasted just like that” under his breath.</p><p>You waited until his shirt was properly buttoned and his tie neatly straightened before you reached out a hand to him. “If Kita says so, then I suppose I’ll be in your care,” you acquiesced through gritted teeth. Atsumu smirked and reciprocated your handshake, giving your hands a tight squeeze as he looked you straight in the eye without trepidation.</p><p>“Same goes fer me,” he replied. “Treat me well, please.”</p><p>“Since you’re getting along, then I’m going to head back to the office,” Kita cleared his throat to announce, turning around to head towards the door. “Try not to kill each other,” he added with a small wave before disappearing into the corridor.</p><p>You ran a hand through your hair as you looked over at Atsumu once the door closed behind your friend. “I’ll page Sawada to get you settled in the office then. I think we have a spare cubicle open—”</p><p>“Wait, wait, wait,” Atsumu interrupted as you looked up from your desk with your hand hovering over the dial-pad of your phone. “Yer gonna have me,” he pointed to himself, “stay <em>outside</em> while you,” he gestured at you, moving his hand up and down, “stay in here? What part of people tryna kill ya do ya not understand?”</p><p>“I know, but I need to <em>work</em>, and I like to work in privacy,” you shot back, your hands now placed firmly on your hips. Atsumu clicked his tongue in admonishment.</p><p>“Kita-san wouldn’t like that,” he said, now directly in front of you and peering down from above.</p><p>“You’re using the Kita card on me?” You asked, half laughing from disbelief. You leaned forward yourself to return his stare to him, determined to not back down. Atsumu simply shrugged in response, an eyebrow raised in nonchalance.</p><p>“And what if I am? Yer gonna go against Kita-san?”</p><p>He had a point. A very valid point at that.</p><p>
  <em>Ugh.</em>
</p><p>Oh, why did this guy have to be such a nuisance to deal with?</p><p>“Fine,” you grunted, your face scrunched up in disdain. “Just don’t interrupt me while I work,” you snapped as you sat back down on your chair and typed in the password to your computer.</p><p>
  <em>Just drown him out, (f/n). Just drown him out. Your company is depending on y—</em>
</p><p>“Yer password ain't very secure, now is it,” Atsumu interrupted your thoughts as he leaned in from behind you, his head adjacent to yours. You jumped in your spot with a frustrated yelp, having been taken by surprise by his sudden appearance at such a close proximity. “Oh,” he mused, “someone shy now?”</p><p>“Miya, do you know what personal space means by any chance?” You asked, wearing a sickeningly sweet smile on your perfectly glossed lips as you swayed your hips to inch your chair away from him. </p><p>“Yeah, but I’m yer personal bodyguard, (f/n)-chan,” he sang back as he hooked an arm on your arm rest and pulled you back to him, a smug grin on his face. “Can’t have ya strayin’ too far from ma eyes y’know,” he sang merrily.</p><p>You rolled your eyes in annoyance as you pushed the man back. “Would it kill you to be a little <em>less</em> annoying at the very least? And that’s (l/n)-<em>san</em> to you.”</p><p>“Nah,” he drawled out as he took a seat on your table, swinging his legs back and forth. “Cause nothin’ can really kill me, (f/n)-chan,” he continued with a wink. He turned over and grabbed the succulent sitting on the edge of your desk.</p><p>“Ooh, what’s this?” He turned the pot upside down, the loose soil at the top falling down onto your white marble flooring.</p><p>“Oh my god, quit touching my stuff!” You snapped as you reached over to grab the plant back, attempting, though failing, to push Atsumu off the table as you did so. “Okay fine, you can stay, but stay on the other side of the room!”</p><p>Atsumu hopped off his spot and strolled over to the sofa by the television with a shit-eating grin on his face. “Now we’re talkin’,” he chuckled as he plopped down and reached for the remote.</p><p>You drew in a deep breath and tried to refocus yourself back to your work, closing your eyes and pushing all thoughts of the menace in your office off to the side. Yes, back to work it was. Atsumu was on the other side of the room, and it looked as if he was pretty happy with the TV arrangement. There shouldn’t be any issues now…</p><p>“AND JAPAN SENDS THE BALL BACK OVER THE NET WITH A BEAUTIFUL SET, AS EXPECTED FROM THEIR GENIUS SETTER—”</p><p>You groaned, the appendages of an incoming headache latching on to your head. To think that you even gave him the benefit of the doubt.</p><p>“Miya, turn down the damn volume. It’s so loud that I can’t hear myself think, you piece of sh—” </p><p>You cut yourself off, surprised that for once since the arrival of your bodyguard this morning, you were able to speak for so long in complete silence.</p><p>Weird.</p><p>“Miya?” you tested once more.</p><p>You looked up from your screen, and was surprised to find the sofa that the man had previously been sprawled out across now empty. No shoes on the coffee table, no coffee cup carelessly placed on the seat. Your eyes darted over to the entrance: did he leave the room? The heavy double doors of your office would have definitely made an audible sound if they were to be opened, and yet you had noticed absolutely nothing between now and when Atsumu had first made himself at home on the couch.</p><p>Walking up to take a closer look with hesitant footsteps, letting the heel of your stilettos slowly hit the floor one after the other without a sound, your hands clenched into a nervous fist as you steadied yourself for the worst. Behind closed doors, you couldn’t tell what laid on the other side —everything acted as a threat in its entirety, and without Atsumu around, you were nothing but a sitting duck waiting for its demise.</p><p>Just as you were about to reach out your hand, you noticed the handle turn and heard the familiar <em>click</em> of the bolt as the door opened, revealing the missing blond standing on the other side.</p><p>“Where did you go?”</p><p>“Nowhere,” he shrugged as he flopped back down onto your sofa, kicking his feet up once again to rest against the edge of your white coffee table.</p><p>“You finished your coffee,” you commented, walking back behind your desk with a raised eyebrow.</p><p>“Went out to chuck it in the trash.” He shot a finger gun in your direction from his spot, his eyes now glued to the screen.</p><p>You hummed in acknowledgment and opened your laptop to dive right back into work.</p><p>Or at least you tried to.</p><p>For someone who was so keen on protecting you from the closest distance possible, it was certainly odd that he had willingly left without making a commotion.</p><p>No, he had definitely left the room for a purpose. There was a rubbish bin situated just steps away from where he laid —he didn’t leave simply to throw away a coffee cup. And while his hair had looked as perfectly styled as when he walked in this morning, it didn’t escape your notice that his tie was just ever so slightly crooked.</p><p>
  <em>No, Kita trusts him.</em>
</p><p>But who’s to say that Kita wasn’t working against you either?</p><p>You slammed your laptop shut decisively as you got out of your chair once more. No, you didn’t want to believe that Kita would betray you, but you had nothing but your shared past supporting the delicate trust that existed between the two of you. You had to make sure —to make sure that a friend so close would never go against you. Atsumu looked up at you from his phone, a dull expression on his face.</p><p>“I know you went out for a reason,” you asserted as you walked over to the sofa and stood in front of him. He sat up from his spot on the couch and crossed his legs, staring at you from below with half lidded eyes.</p><p>“And what of it?” He provoked back, his smug grin from earlier returning to his face. You could tell that he was up to something, and while you were literally the one standing at higher ground this time, the man’s overwhelming confidence had shifted the tides in his favor and you found yourself spelled under his control.</p><p>“Spill.”</p><p>He hummed as you shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, tapping his chin as if he was deep in thought. “Well, guess I could tell ya,” he started, throwing his hands behind his head as he leaned back against the sofa, “but it's gonna cost ya.”</p><p>Your eyebrows knit closer together as your frown deepened. You didn’t like it —not being in control, letting someone like <em>him</em> make the demands. But what other choice did you have? One wrong move and you’d end up dead. You needed to know.</p><p>“Name your price. Do you want a Rolex? A car? Maybe a condo?”</p><p>He scoffed, almost as if he was offended that you would think that he couldn’t afford those things himself. Honestly, who <em>was</em> this guy?</p><p>“It’s simple, really. Call me Atsumu, and I’ll let ya know,” he said with a smile.</p><p>A second later, a loud laugh ripped into the room as Atsumu watched your face contort into yet another disgusted expression, your shoulders cringing reflexively. “It ain’t that bad, rather easy if ya ask me. Just three syllables.”</p><p>Your lips remained sewn shut as you went through the list of options in your mind. He was right —it was just three syllables. Three separate phonetic sounds that held meaning only for those who understood it. Unfortunately, you did, and to show —dare you say it— <em>endearment</em> for the man was the last thing you wanted to do.</p><p>But what choice did you really have in the matter? It was either suffer through momentary embarrassment or be permanently sentenced to death. The right path at the crossroad was glaringly obvious —it was just your stubborn pride that refused to give in.</p><p>“Atsumu,” you gritted through your teeth, suppressing the undeniable urge to empty your stomach’s contents in front of you, “tell me why you left just now.”</p><p>He hummed in amusement, clearly enjoying every passing second of your agony as the mischievous glint in his eyes magnified. “And the magic word?”</p><p>“Please.”</p><p>“All together now?”</p><p>You glared at the blond as your knuckles turned white —your hands in such tight fists that your nails dug deep into your palm.</p><p>“Atsumu, please tell me why you left just now.”</p><p>He ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, his whole demeanor suddenly shifting from unwarranted confidence to excessive caution. He stood up, shoving both his hands into his pockets, and walked over to lean next to your ear.</p><p>“They were outside your door.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>My favorite part in the entire series is probably the part where Atsumu plays with the reader’s succulent 😂  Anyways, chapter 3 will be up next week!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Unexpected</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This chapter contains vague mentions of <b>alcohol</b>, descriptions of an individual feeling <b>physically unwell</b>.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“<em>They were outside your door</em>,” he had whispered into your ear, his voice heavy and guarded, as if the words that had just left his lips carried along with it the weight of his responsibilities.</p>
<p>The single sentence he had uttered echoed in the back of your mind as you stared down at the papers in front of you. You sighed as you dragged your fountain pen across the tabbed section, rotating the nib along the width of the greyed box to sign off on the contract.</p>
<p>You placed the sheet on top of the document holder to your left and smashed the spacebar with your thumb to wake your computer from its slumber, quickly typing in your password when it lit up to unlock your desktop.</p>
<p>
  <em>Six days.</em>
</p>
<p>It had been six days since you had been first introduced to Atsumu, six days since Atsumu had caught the letter sender’s associates snooping around outside your office, and six days since the blond man had loudly declared that you would be in danger anywhere out of his sight and had invited himself to board in your house.</p>
<p><em>It’s been six days since I was last able to get any work done, that’s what</em>, you thought to yourself with a roll of your eyes. You clicked open your inbox, checking the outline of the day’s meetings your secretary had sent earlier this morning.</p>
<p>“Looks like it’s going to be a quiet day today, ” you mumbled to yourself, staring at the large empty blocks in your schedule. “Or at least as quiet as Atsumu and his TV allow it to be.”</p>
<p>Perhaps he probably did save your life six days ago, but he had been nothing but a bother in the following days: from insisting on staying uncomfortably close to you at any given time, to flirting with you at every given opportunity <em>solely</em> to get a kick out of your reaction —you had to give it to the man for trying his utmost hardest to shake up every single organized aspect of your life. You flipped open your planner and glanced at the long list of itemized tasks, heaving a sigh at the responsibilities that just seemed to pile up without pause.</p>
<p>“I’m so behind on everything thanks to that blond asshat,” you cursed as you slammed the planner shut. Your eyes trailed back to the schedule, wondering if the extended time you were to share with Atsumu confined in your office was better categorized as a blessing or a curse.</p>
<p>Because with all things given, you had a rather difficult time putting your finger on your opinion of the blond. He was, in every right, a giant pain and a massive nuisance. He was loud, rambunctious, and marched to the beat of his own drum with absolutely no regard to what you had to say.</p>
<p>And yet, you couldn’t bring yourself to say outright that you hated him and that you wanted him gone. As insufferable as he could be at any given time, it didn’t escape your notice the few occasions he had looked over at you with some semblance of fondness in his eyes, his voice dewy and his shoulders relaxed as he chatted at lengths with you about the rare topics that the two of you found common ground in.</p>
<p>To add on, he seemed to know <em>exactly</em> what he was doing as well. He did save you from that attack the first day, after all. Your mind flashed back to the dark look in his eyes as he handed the black switchblade confiscated from the intruder into your grasps, his breathing even and without a single lick of fear.</p>
<p>You sighed as you leaned into the back of your chair, running a hand through your hair as you tried to beat down the thoughts of Miya Atsumu that had infiltrated your conscious mind.</p>
<p><em>Was there really a need to choose between hate and like? He was just someone that Kita hired to protect you, there didn’t have to be any feelings attached to it</em>, you reasoned to yourself as your fingers rested against your nose bridge.</p>
<p><em>It’s not like you need to marry him or anything</em>, you scoffed.</p>
<p>“Miya-san, that coffee was for the president, not for you!” a shrill voice shrieked from behind your door. Your ears perked up at the mention of your title, and you innerly groaned when the dots connected and you realized what must have transpired on the other side.</p>
<p>
  <em>Speak of the devil and he shall appear…</em>
</p>
<p>“Don’t worry ‘bout it, Kyouka-chan,” a husky voice answered in a tone <em>far</em> too friendly for the workplace. Your brows knit closer as you tried to ignore the sinking feeling in your stomach; the lack of professionalism of the man always seemed to push you into a fit of rage, and this case was clearly no different.</p>
<p><em>No, shut up, not a word,</em> you grunted at the nagging voice at the back of your mind —the same voice that would chime in from time to time singing “I told you so” in an all too merry tune.</p>
<p>“It can be a secret between the two of us, yeah?” he continued loudly as he kicked open the wooden double doors, leaning over slightly to keep the contents of his cup from spilling. “Mornin’ sweetikins,” he waved at you with his free hand, the grin on his face rivalling even the Cheshire Cat himself.</p>
<p>You rolled your eyes as you got up from your chair to meet the two in the center of your office. “Morning, Atsumu. You’re cleaning that footprint off my door yourself just so you know.” You nodded your head at the door. “Also, can I have my coffee back?” you asked, reaching a hand out to the man to await for your request.</p>
<p>Atsumu hummed, as if considering your offer, and then shrugged and moved the cup to his lips to take a swig of the caffeinated brew. He placed the cup into your hand and made his way over to the white sofa by the wall.</p>
<p>“No to the door, but sure to the coffee. Though it’s gonna be an indirect kiss, y’know,” he teased, shooting you a coy wink as he sank into the sofa, his hands crossed behind his head.</p>
<p>You recoiled in disgust at the action and stomped over to Atsumu to shove the paper cup back into his hands. “You know what, keep it. I don’t want it anymore.”</p>
<p>“Ya sure? Kyouka-chan brews <em>the</em> best coffee ever,” he praised as he wafted the smell from the lid. “Delightful.”</p>
<p>“President, I can make you—” Sawada offered, reaching out a hand to rest onto your shoulder in an attempt to calm you down. You narrowed your eyes and shrugged her hand off, your heels clacking along the flooring as you walked away from your bodyguard. </p>
<p>“It’s fine, Sawada. I’ll get my own later,” you muttered under your breath, whisking around your desk to sit back down on your chair. “Go back to work.”</p>
<p>Sawada shot you an apologetic look and nodded, then stepped back outside your office and quietly closed the door behind her, the sound of her footsteps disappearing into the hallway.</p>
<p>And as if on cue, the click of the door closing shut was perfectly matched by the click of the TV remote, with the screen glowing to life almost instantly as numbers quickly flashed on the upper right corner.</p>
<p>“You sure watch a lot of volleyball,” you observed from behind your laptop screen.</p>
<p>“Volleyball’s a nice sport,” Atsumu answered plainly, his arms crossed behind his head with his eyes trained to the screen. “It all happens so quick and it’s as much a mental game as it is a physical one.” He paused as he sat up to inch closer to the television, “It’s fun to follow.”</p>
<p>A quiet silence followed the end of Atsumu’s words as you struggled to wrack through your head for a civil reply. You hadn’t expected him to have answered your question so seriously — no, you had prepared a rather sarcastic quip in anticipation for him making an inappropriate remark like he always did.</p>
<p>“Sounds interesting,” you managed in the end, having come up with absolutely nothing better despite the communication skills you so proudly touted in your role as the president of your company. You quietly clicked your tongue in annoyance at your defeat —Miya Atsumu truly did shake up every part of your life, and you were not enjoying one second of it.</p>
<p>“It is,” he answered, the honesty in his words as obvious as his engrossment in the televised game itself.</p>
<p>You looked over at the man, whose wide, chocolate brown eyes were glued onto the screen with both admiration and fascination —the same flicker of childish curiosity that would show up in the nights shared on the rooftop where you would divulge your dreams and aspirations to the man over a shared bottle of spirits.</p>
<p>Miya Atsumu was an enigma, but when you thought about it, he wasn’t really that bad in the end.</p>
<p>“Could you turn down the volume though?”</p>
<p>Atsumu looked over and smiled, then grabbed the remote and aimed it at the screen, cranking up the volume to the maximum setting.</p>
<p>“Where’s the fun in that, sweetheart?” he cackled to himself as he threw the remote back onto the table and folded his hands atop his stomach.</p>
<p>
  <em>Never mind. He’s the worst. </em>
  
</p>
<p>You let out an exasperated sigh as you went back to work, trying to channel your focus to your breathing —the rhythm and the depth— rather than the loud chatter of the television and Atsumu’s occasional cries of excitement. It could be worse, you thought. Atsumu could have been bouncing off the walls and causing a mess in your office, or he could put his face uncomfortably close to yours again from behind, or he could be outside doing god know’s <em>what</em> with the other female employees in the office…</p>
<p>No, of course you weren’t jealous.</p>
<p>It was just that you didn’t want to deal with the mess that was sure to ensue if someone took his flirty antics the wrong way.</p>
<p>No, it was just the worst thing he could have done from an employer’s standpoint. You nodded your head. You were just being a responsible boss, that’s all.</p>
<p>You weren’t jealous. Nothing of the sort.</p>
<p>You sighed, realizing that once again, the bleach-blond man had somehow managed to worm his way into your thoughts to interrupt your productivity without having even lifted a finger. You glanced back up, seeing that since you wouldn’t be getting through your documents anytime soon, you might as well deal with the sound problem at hand.</p>
<p>“What’s wrong? You look like you’re going to pass out or something,” you observed from across the room, narrowing your eyes at Atsumu as you placed the papers in your hand down, having been caught off guard by the sight in front of you. “You doing alright?”</p>
<p>Atsumu looked over at you, his face slightly pale and his eyes now bloodshot. “I’m… I’m fine,” he stammered as he squeezed a single eye shut, his face marred by obvious discomfort. You exhaled in disagreement, clamoring out of your chair and kicking your heels off to the side to rush over to him.</p>
<p>“What a rare sight,” he laughed weakly as you forced the back of your hand onto his forehead, checking for signs of a fever. “Yer worried ‘bout me now? That’s a first,” he meekly continued as he lightly pushed your hand away, turning his head over to look to the side.</p>
<p>“I can’t have you dying on me, can I?” you crooned as you smoothed out his hair, the pristinely styled blond fringe having now been matted by cold sweat. You could feel Atsumu’s muscles unclench and relax underneath your arm at the touch of your fingertips, a light groan escaping from his lips as you brushed his hair back.</p>
<p>“I’ll get a doctor to come over,” you muttered as you retracted your arm and got back up, but instantly found yourself pulled back down onto the couch against Atsumu’s chest as soon as your heel had hit the ground.</p>
<p>“Just stay here,” he mumbled with closed eyes, a forced grin on his face. “Safer this way.” </p>
<p>You started to squirm out of his hold, your mouth spilling insistent pleas of sending him off to emergency, but soon yielded to the man’s loose hold on your waist when you felt his breathing slow back down to a normal pace, his chest rising and falling steadily once more. You lightly sighed, tilting your head to rest your cheek on his shoulder.</p>
<p>“I won’t be safe if you’re dead now, would I?” you half-joked, smiling discreetly to yourself as you felt Atsumu’s chest rumble from a wheezed laugh.</p>
<p>“Can’t kill me that easily. Nice try, (f/n)-chan,” he joked through gasps as he reached up a hand to pull at his tie, slipping two fingers underneath the knot to loosen the article.</p>
<p>You moved aside to sit next to Atsumu on the sofa, turning your head over to take a closer look at his face. While he was no longer groaning in pain, his face remained scrunched up with an eye still squeezed shut as the the corners of his mouth winced intermittently from time to time —his breathing hitching up whenever he did so.</p>
<p>“Do you want some water or something? Or I can get you—”</p>
<p>“—Stay in here, (f/n),” he murmured softly, looking at you from the side through half lidded eyes. “Yer safe in here,” he continued on in a whisper, turning his head over to stare straight at your face. </p>
<p>“You can’t possibly think that you can protect me in that state. If you won’t take care of yourself, then I will, Atsumu,” you countered as you stood back up onto your feet, walking over to the window to pick up the shoes you had discarded earlier.</p>
<p>He sighed as he rolled off the sofa and staggered over to the door, his footsteps cautious and void of its usual dexterity. “Fine,” he heaved, placing a trembling hand on the door, “I’ll head to the clinic downstairs. But don’t ya go anywhere until I’m back, ya hear?”</p>
<p>You nodded with a smile as you slipped your shoes back on, heading over to Atsumu’s side to help him with the door. “What, you’re worried about me now?”</p>
<p>He stifled a weak chuckle as he walked out of your office, his fist propped against the wooden frame to support his weight. “Can’t have ya dyin’ on ma watch, doll. Yer a real klutz, y’know.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, yeah,” you said with a small wave of your hand and a worried smile. “Go and do whatever you need to feel better, jerk. Let me know if you need anything though, alright?”</p>
<p>He nodded his head as he slipped out the door, his usually loud footsteps and even louder presence as eerily silent as the forest night for once. You stared back at the now-sealed entrance, your thoughts ravaged by the sinking feeling in your gut and the increased palpitations of your heart. Atsumu had found and easily dealt with the enemy in the same hallway just a couple of days ago, but by the way he had been walking, placing his fist against the wall for support as he staggered along… Should an enemy were to make a move now…</p>
<p><em>Don’t think about that</em>.</p>
<p>It wasn’t your life that you were worried about.</p>
<p>
  <em>It’ll be fine.</em>
</p>
<p>You sat back down on your chair, turning behind to stare out the floor length windows as if the city view from above would somehow assuage your fears.</p>
<p>
  <em>Right?</em>
</p>
<p>Atsumu would never let you hear the end of it if he found out, but it was his life and <em>his </em>wellbeing that you were wrought with worry over.</p>
<p>He was annoying, a menace —a downright nuisance, even. But it was that haughty attitude of his, the absolute confidence that he had in his skillset, and the way that he teetered the line between carefree and cautious juxtaposed against the rare glimpses of gentleness and seriousness that had somehow engraved a place within your mind.</p>
<p>He might have been a pain in the ass, but he was a special pain in the ass. If something were to happen to him—</p>
<p>A knock interrupted your thoughts and brought you back from the abyss of worries you had fallen into. You cleared your voice, projecting a loud “come in” from your spot across the room. The door opened a crack, and Sawada’s red toe box peeped in, followed quickly by the rest of her white dress.</p>
<p>“I saw Miya-san staggering down the hall earlier,” she noted, walking towards you. “Is he alright?”</p>
<p>You looked over at the door and sighed with a small shake of your head and an accompanying shrug of your shoulders. “I’m not sure, but he knows to call for me if it’s anything serious,” you answered, picking up your pen to revisit the documents from before in a futile attempt to stave off the uneasiness slowly consuming you from within.</p>
<p>“President, you look like you haven’t slept well for a couple of nights in a row,” Sawada observed from the other side of your table, her brows drawn close in a frown. She ran back outside to her desk, returning only moments later with a stick in her hand. “Here, some concealer for you,” she offered, placing the object in your hands.</p>
<p>You whispered a quick word of thanks as you twisted the cap and blotted the fluid underneath your eyes, wiping away the purple-blue that had dotted the thin skin with each stroke of the wand and each dab of the finger. You turned over to look at Sawada, tilting your head in search for her approval to which she happily bequeathed with a nod.</p>
<p>“Is Miya-san keeping you up?” she asked, her voice sounding as worried as the expression on her face. You simply groaned in response as you made your way over to the couch and plopped down onto the white leather.</p>
<p>“He keeps insisting on watching volleyball from the Brazilian league at night with the volume on maximum,” you moaned into your palm, your eyes closed and your head facing the ceiling. “Can’t get even a wink of sleep. I’m surprised the neighbors haven’t complained yet.”</p>
<p>Sawada lightly chuckled as she walked over to the other side of the room, grabbing a glass from the cabinet and filling it up halfway with water. “Somehow I’m not surprised that Miya-san did that,” she laughed as she walked back over to where you lay.</p>
<p>“He’s such a pain in the ass. He’s literally a walking, talking nightmare,” you groaned, your hands shielding your eyes from the light fixtures on the ceiling. Sawada chuckled at your remark as she nimbly placed the glass onto the side table, taking a seat in the armchair beside you. “It’s good you’re here, Sawada. Otherwise I wouldn’t get anything done at all.”</p>
<p>She shook her head in disagreement, “President, it’s all you. Without your oversight and vision, I don’t think we would be so ahead of schedule in developing the graphic user interface of the platform.” She crossed her leg, resting her hands on top of her thigh. “I don’t know where I’d be without <em>you</em>, honestly,” she stressed.</p>
<p>You hummed in reluctance, figuring that putting up a fight against Sawada would very likely end up in an endless loop of compliments, as she continued on, “Though I can’t help but wonder if that’s what they meant when they said if you wished to ‘live’.” You looked over at her, removing your hands from your face to shoot her a questioning look.</p>
<p>“How do you know that?” you asked, your tone suddenly cold and calloused, the tension suddenly thickening in the room. “You shouldn’t have seen the letter.” Your secretary eagerly shook her head with her hands held up in front of her.</p>
<p>“Inarizaki’s CFO let me know, of course,” she explained as she shifted in her seat to reach for the phone in her pocket. “He said it’d be better if I was on the same page as Miya-san so that we could protect you together.” </p>
<p>Your lips twisted into a knot as you slowly nodded —albeit grudgingly. Kita <em>was</em> known to be meticulously thorough; he always saw to it that everything was done properly without a single step missed along the way. Perhaps it was just the stress of it all —the looming threat of death from the letter, the many sleepless nights from having kept up by the loud voice of sports broadcasters, the pressure you suddenly forced onto yourself with the overspilling list of action items in your planner… It was just your nerves getting the best of you. If Kita shared the information, then it meant that he trusted her.</p>
<p>You looked over at Sawada, her hair perfectly styled with not a single speck of dust on her white dress, and relaxed your shoulders as you shook your head.</p>
<p>What were you <em>thinking</em>? This was <em>your </em>secretary —the one who would always leave a freshly brewed cup of coffee on your desk, the one who would never fail to send your schedule at 6 o’clock sharp in the morning. This was the person who served as the pillar of support —the failsafe to any catastrophe, the saving grace— amidst all the chaos that came along in running a tech startup alone. If anyone was to be trusted, it would be her.</p>
<p>“Ruining my life seems to be a pretty destructive move,” you bitterly laughed as you sat back up, reaching over the armrest for the glass on the table. “Imagine if my own bodyguard was the one who tried to kill me, though.”</p>
<p>Sawada looked up from her phone with a tightlipped smile, reaching over to the coffee table to lightly rap her knuckles against the wooden surface. “As much as I’d like to believe that’s not the case and laugh it off, I don’t know,” she admitted, leaning back to rest her back against the armchair. “He’s… He gives off a bit of a dangerous and mysterious vibe, like how you know him but don’t know him at the same time.”</p>
<p>“Why do you say that?”</p>
<p>She shrugged, biting down on her lip in defeat. “I don’t know. It’s just… I’m not sure if I can trust him, that’s all,” she confessed as she looked up at you, her large round eyes filled with concern. “Maybe I’m just overthinking it… Or I’m just wary of everyone because it’s you.” She looked up at you, her perfectly lined red lips disappearing behind a pursed smile. “I can’t help but fear the worst.”</p>
<p>“I can always count on you, now can’t I,” you laughed politely. “I’ll keep your words in mind. I’ve been… conflicted about my impression of him,” you admitted. Your eyes settled onto the door behind Sawada, and your smile dissolved once more.</p>
<p>
  <em>He wouldn’t… Would he?</em>
</p>
<p>You ran your fingers through your hair, dishevelling the neatly styled tresses with the apprehension controlling you like a marionette. Since when did your life become so isolated? Since when did it became a battle royale where the last one standing was the one who double-crossed the betrayer? Since when did you have to do a double take, a triple take —even a quadruple take— at the allegiances and loyalties of the people you trusted the most?</p>
<p>Your hands returned onto your face as you closed your eyes to escape from the white fluorescent lights of your office.</p>
<p>An escape. An escape would be nice.</p>
<p>“That’s weird,” Sawada mumbled as she swiped across her phone’s touchscreen. You moved your hands away from your face and looked up from where you laid on the sofa, finding your secretary glaring at her phone screen with an incredulous, perplexed expression —the first time in all the years you had seen such utter confusion grace upon her soft features.</p>
<p>“What’s weird?”</p>
<p>She clicked on the side button of her phone to lock the screen and looked over at you as she stood back up onto her feet.</p>
<p>“Smith Corporation’s representative wants to schedule a meeting in two hours.”</p>
<p>You sat back upright on the sofa as you placed the glass rim of the cup by your lips. “Weren’t they the ones that threatened a restraining order on us if we tried contacting them again?” you frowned, taking a sip from the glass. “A bunch of assholes if you asked me.”</p>
<p>“That’s what I thought too…” She hesitated briefly as her fingers ghosted the door handle, the gears in her head spinning to try and make sense of it all. “But apparently they changed their mind.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Industry Standard</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter includes <b>swearing</b>, <b>bleeding</b>, <b>drugging</b>, <b>restraint</b> and implications of <b>kidnap</b>.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“They just decided to change their mind?” you asked, getting out of your spot to walk over tothe door. Sawada stopped in her tracks and turned over to you.</p>
<p>“Apparently so,” she huffed defeatedly, “they just sent this email.” She turned her phone over to you, showing you the blank email she had received. “No message in the body. They just went and said ‘Hey, we’re going to come over right now so clear your schedule for us’ in the subject,” she seethed out in anger.</p>
<p>“Rare to see you so heated,” you chuckled.</p>
<p>“Who just sends an email with the message in the subject line? And it wasn’t even a proper email —it was an invite. That means they didn’t even open up a new message. They just opened their calendar and pencilled us in with absolutely no concern for what time works the best for us!” Sawada paused to take a breath from her rant. “I’m sorry, I’m just so…”</p>
<p>“Offended by the lack of professionalism?”</p>
<p>“Yes that.” She sighed, exhaling loudly as she tucked the wisps of hair that had fallen out of her tight ponytail behind her ears. “Sorry, I’ve been droning on with the assumption that you’d agree to meet—”</p>
<p>“—You can accept the appointment,” you reassured her with a smile. You took a step forward and grabbed onto the door handle, pushing down and out to open the door for her. Your secretary nodded and tapped quickly on her phone to confirm the meeting.</p>
<p>“They’ll be here in two hours. I’ll go prepare the files for you.”</p>
<p>You smiled in gratitude as Sawada walked in front of you and out through the doorway. It was refreshing, to say the least —the way that the usually calm and composed Sawada who you could always rely on to get things done would get so frazzled over something as simple as email etiquette. The relationship between the two of you had, for the most part, been professional, but you couldn’t help but wonder if she too thought of you as a friend after all the time she’s worked for you. Your gaze lingered at the flyaways that had escaped the iron grip of her hair elastic.</p>
<p>Perhaps she did, for her to have been comfortable enough to show you this side of her.</p>
<p>“Hey, Sawada?” Her name fell out of your mouth in a ghost of a whisper without you even realizing. She stopped in her tracks, doubling back on her steps to re-enter your office.</p>
<p>“Yes?”</p>
<p>You paused for a second to think —to collect your words to translate the rampant thoughts in your brain into coherent sentences. You hadn’t expected for yourself to have called out her name, and you hadn’t expected for her to have even heard you either. You forcefully exhaled as you looked back up at her.</p>
<p>“Do you think it’s weird too?”</p>
<p>She hesitated for a moment, simply staring back at you —puzzled to say the least. “The rescheduling? Certainly. I had to put a foot on the ground to get their lawyer to leave us alone.” She shook her head with a disapproving frown, her nostrils flaring ever so slightly in anger as if she was reliving the interaction in her mind. “And you know, the invitation thing they sent.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, the rescheduling,” you quietly murmured to yourself. Your eyes mets hers again and you smiled with a small shake of your head. There was no need to drag anyone else into the mess of thoughts in your mind. You’d figure it out yourself first.</p>
<p>Sawada took your smile as a sign for her departure, and nodded to bid you farewell before walking out the door, the familiar <em>click clack</em> of her heels bouncing against the walls of the corridor until she turned the corner and vanished from sight.</p>
<p>You let go of the edge of the door, allowing it to slam shut as you walked back over to the sofa, plopping onto the white leather with your eyes closed in deep thought.</p>
<p>
  <em>How much time had passed by again?</em>
</p>
<p>You dug around blindly in your pocket for your phone, your thumb pressing on the side button to light the device to life before raising it up to your face.</p>
<p><em>No new notifications</em>.</p>
<p>Nothing from Atsumu about his condition, nothing from the clinic informing you that an employee had been transferred to the ER, nothing from Sawada urging you to sign the paperwork to document what happened to HR, and most importantly, nothing from Kita asking you why the bodyguard he had sent you had died.</p>
<p>“No news is good news,” you mumbled under your breath as you locked the device again, the screen extinguishing to give way for the reflection who now stared back at you from the blackened screen. You dropped your phone onto the spot by your side with a <em>thud</em>, and shielded your eyes with your forearms. The light made it hard to focus sometimes.</p>
<p>When you asked if it was <em>weird</em>, you had meant everything that had happened. The letter, Atsumu’s arrival, the people outside your door that Atsumu had <em>supposedly</em> caught, how his condition suddenly took a turn for the worst after appearing perfectly fine this morning…</p>
<p><em>Perfectly fine</em>.</p>
<p>That’s right —he was perfectly fine this morning. Up until he stole your coffee.</p>
<p>You unfolded your arms and looked over at the corner of the coffee table where Atsumu’s cup sat. You leaned forward to reach for it, and your face scrunched up in confusion when you felt the forceful tug of gravity pull against your motion.</p>
<p>You frowned. Had Atsumu even drank any of this?</p>
<p>You brought the cup onto your lap and popped the lid open, unsurprised to find the cup was still filled to the brim with the brown liquid sloshing around in your grasp. Was he just an asshole who stole your coffee for the fun of it? Or was there something else to it? Did he know something that you didn’t?</p>
<p>You brought the cup up to your nose and cautiously took a whiff.</p>
<p><em>Smells like coffee</em>, you thought, clasping the plastic lid back on. <em>The coffee I didn’t get a chance to drink</em>.</p>
<p>You let out a bitter laugh as you got up and walked over to the rubbish bin and dropped the cup in, watching wordlessly as the lid popped off and the contents spilled out of the cup. You thought about giving him the benefit of the doubt, but then you realized it didn’t really matter what his reason was —you weren’t going to drink it, and it wasn’t like Atsumu would be interested in drinking cold coffee when he came back anyways.</p>
<p>What his intentions were… Those were thoughts for later when he came back.</p>
<p>You looked down at your wrist: you had an hour and a half to go before you would have to meet with Smith Corporation’s representative. You cracked your neck, your hands shooting up to massage the knots accumulated in your trapezius muscle as you strolled back around to sit down at your desk.</p>
<p>Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. You never were able to get much done with Atsumu hovering around, after all.</p>
<p>You reached for the phone at the corner of your desk, dialling the phone number you had memorized by heart onto the keypad.</p>
<p>“Hello, thank you for calling to place your Starbucks through the phone. May I take your order?”</p>
<p>“Can I get a grande chai latte with two scoops matcha, three pumps chai, two pumps caramel, five pumps pumpkin sauce, four shots of espresso, extra cinnamon powder on top, steamed heavy cream in place of milk, and no foam?”</p>
<p>“Access granted. Please enter PIN ‘Oscar-Sierra-Alpha-Mike-Uniform-one-one’ within 60 seconds following termination of this call.” The caller on the other end hung up, and you were met by the incessant beeping of the dial tone.</p>
<p>You returned the receiver to the phone, and typed in the PIN on your keyboard. The blue login screen in front of you turned black, then lit up once again with the crest of the Ministry of Defense proudly staring back at you. You hovered your cursor over to the lone folder on the desktop, and clicked twice in rapid succession on the left button of your mouse.</p>
<p>Yes, this was the precious time for you to work on matters that Atsumu himself could not know of.</p>
<hr/>
<p>“I must confess, Nakashima-san, I was rather taken aback by the sudden invitation to discuss a partnership,” you disclosed as you slid into the seat next to the said man in the maroon suit.</p>
<p>Nakashima chuckled and shook his head, his carefully styled bangs loosening ever so slightly and falling onto his face. “A fault on my part, I must admit.” He smiled wistfully at you as he twisted nervously on the golden cufflinks pinned onto the sleeves of his jacket. “I didn’t realize that you and your team were the pioneering company in the application of artificial intelligence into speech pattern recognition. Please do accept my humblest apologies for having denied your initial request to meet up…”</p>
<p>You let out a laugh yourself as your mouth curved up into a polite smile. “It’s alright, we’re rather new, after all.” You looked over at him, the smile dissolving into a pokerface, and added, “It’s only to be expected, though the lawyers were a bit troublesome to deal with, my secretary tells me.”</p>
<p>“No, I insist, please do accept my humblest apologies.” He rested his pinky finger against his lips with a frown on his face. “You mentioned lawyers, though? I’m afraid I’m not following.”</p>
<p>“Your lawyers threatened restraining orders, no?”</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, I’m unaware of that.”</p>
<p>You raised an eyebrow in suspicion. You saw first hand just how stressed Sawada had been during the ordeal —her dark circles so prominent that even the thickest concealer couldn’t fully cover them, her usually scarlet red lips the dull shade of ashen grey. You knew something was up —there had to be foul play involved in some form or another.</p>
<p>Your eyes trailed down to the golden cufflink on Nakashima’s sleeves —the ones he had been fiddling with just seconds before. It was rather ostentatious, you thought with a judgmental crinkle of your nose. Tacky, even —the S-shaped accessory was carved out from what must have been solid gold judging from the weight against the sleeve.</p>
<p>You looked back up to Nakashima’s face with a confident smile, and you relaxed into the soft leather of your chair, crossing your legs to the side. Your suspicions were on Smith Corporation’s true intentions, but whether or not you would be able to get the man in front of you to reveal what you wanted to know would be the challenge.</p>
<p>Though you were never one to back down from a challenge, now were you?</p>
<p>“Maybe it was miscommunication in that case,” you laughed. “Let’s continue on as we intended to, shall we?” Nakashima nodded curtly in response.</p>
<p>“Smith Corporation would like a stake in the AI system,” he recited from memory as he leaned back in his chair, his elbow resting against the waxed mahogany table. “In exchange for the financial support we would no doubt be providing, we’d like unrestricted access to all the data your system compiles.”</p>
<p>“I’m afraid that’s non-negotiable,” you monotoned with your nose held up high. “Requested access, perhaps, but full control stays with us.”</p>
<p>“Yet you’re willing to hand it all over to Inarizaki?”</p>
<p>You narrowed your eyes for a split second before the edges of your lips raised into yet another polite smile, your eyes now disappearing behind the mask you adorned. Your fingers knitted together, and you rested your chin against the back of your hands as you leaned in closer, your weight balanced on the elbows you anchored onto the table.</p>
<p>“Now wherever did you hear that?”</p>
<p>“Well, Inarizaki was the one who blocked all our subsequent attempts to meet with you up until today. We assumed it was because they wanted access to the entire system themselves.”</p>
<p>You frowned —this was unexpected. Kita never mentioned anything about Inarizaki intercepting offers from other companies. Your lips stretched out into a thin line as you uncrossed and re-crossed your legs underneath the table, your foot resting flush against your heel.</p>
<p>The lawyers Nakashima had mentioned earlier… Were they Kita’s doing then?</p>
<p><em>No. You knew Kita better than anyone. </em>Nakashima was lying.</p>
<p>“I can assure you that it wasn’t Inarizaki,” you laughed as you picked up your pen from the table and balanced it in the grip of your hand. “I’d know if it was. And no, even they don’t get complete access to the system.”</p>
<p>Nakashima shifted in his spot, raising his hand to his face and allowing his fingers to dance along the edges of his lips as he eyed you from top to bottom.</p>
<p>“Well,” he began with a smirk as his eyes hovered along the length of your neck, “I suppose we could consider requested access… It is, at the end of the day, extremely invaluable technology for our company.” His hand moved down to drum along his kneecap as he licked his lips. “I’m sure we could negotiate something that would work for the <em>both</em> of us.”</p>
<p>You loudly dropped the pen in your hands with a <em>clang</em> as the metal hit the hardwood surface of the table and you looked over at the man with a darkened expression. “I’d appreciate if this proposal of yours is suitable for the workplace then.” You ran a finger down the length of the papers in front of you, letting your nail claw against the surface.</p>
<p>Nakashima’s eyes darted onto the paper, his eyes trained on the streak of lifted material that your scratch had left as he let out a nervous chuckle. “Nothing of the sort. You hurt me, (l/n)-san. I was talking about an agreement that would benefit both of our <em>companies</em>,” he emphasized, his gaze darting around your face yet never meeting your eyes.</p>
<p>“I see,” you laughed as you picked your pen back up. “I’m sorry if I mistook the meaning behind your words. Operant conditioning of sorts over time. Please accept my most sincere apologies, Nakashima-san.”</p>
<p>The man in front of you opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a loud <em>bang</em> as the large double doors behind you bursted open with a kick from none other than Atsumu, who looked like the epitome of health itself.</p>
<p>“Sorry I’m late, (f/n)-chan,” he sang as he waltzed into the room, pulling out the chair directly next to Nakashima and plopping himself down into the black leather seat. “Ya wouldn’t <em>believe</em> the line-up for the cash register at the convenience store. Utterly ridiculous, I just wanted a sandwich!” he moaned loudly as he reached up to pinch at his nose bridge.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, this is…”</p>
<p>“This is my bo—”</p>
<p>Atsumu clamored out of his chair and placed two hands firmly down onto the table to lean closer to you from his spot. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! (f/n)-chan, ya sayin’ the b-word in front of a client? And yer the one who yammers on ‘bout professionalism all the time!” He angled his body to look at Nakashima in the face. “Nice ta meet ya, I’m Miya Atsumu. I’m (f/n)-chan’s partner,” he introduced, offering a hand to the man.</p>
<p>“Bodyguard was what I was going for,” you clarified quietly from the side with a roll of your eyes. Atsumu shrugged happily as Nakashima reciprocated his handshake, jerking forcefully and pulling him momentarily out of his seat as Atsumu slipped a hand into the man's coat pocket. His eyes darkened for a fraction of a second as his fingers slid across the sharp edge of the metal object he was all too familiar with, and a coy smirk quickly found its way decorating his handsome face.</p>
<p>“Whoa, sick pen,” Atsumu admired loudly as he withdrew the other item from Nakashima’s pocket. “Hey, the back of this thing’s a USB! Yer not gonna steal data or anythin’, are ya?”</p>
<p>“Atsumu!” you exasperated in irritation, your eyes widened in hopes that he could get the message that you needed him to stop right this instant. “Weren’t you not feeling well earlier? Why don’t you wait outside and I’ll finish up here with Nakashima-san alone?” you proposed.</p>
<p>“Oh, nah, I’m good. And don’t mind me,” Atsumu smiled, the edges of his lips raising ever so slightly as his eyes hid behind the forced rising of his cheekbones. “I’m just here to protect (f/n)-chan from scumbags, that’s all,” he continued as he tilted his head innocently. He opened his eyes and flashed Nakashima a dark look, leaning in by his ear to whisper, “Can’t have trash like ya tryna get in her pants, y’know.”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” Nakashima grimaced as he turned around to face you with his back to Atsumu, “should I come back another time?”</p>
<p>“Nakashima-san,” you began, your eyes disappearing behind a saccharine smile as you got up out of your seat, “please excuse us for a second.” You walked over to Atsumu, grabbing him by the back of his shirt collar, and singlehandedly pulled him out of the room.</p>
<p>“Cupcake what the <em>fuck</em>? I just got ma shirt laundered cause <em>someone</em> kept yappin’ ‘bout how I didn’t look ‘professional’ enough fer the damn workplace!” Atsumu hollered as he stumbled clumsily behind you into the hallway as the door closed firmly shut.</p>
<p>“Don’t you <em>cupcake</em> me, you asshat. What the fuck to <em>you.</em> I was going to sign a fucking client on!”</p>
<p>“Well, y’all clearly weren’t gonna sign anythin’ anyways. The dude was just starin’ at ya with those disgustin’ googly eyes.”</p>
<p>Your eye twitched, and your grip on Atsumu’s collar tightened. “Maybe it’s cause you kept on pestering him! You were literally breathing down his neck!”</p>
<p>You heard Atsumu scoff, and your hand felt the vibration from the back of his neck as he trudged on with your death grip on his collar. “I’m just sayin’, he’s plenty suspicious. Let me remind ya that, oh I dunno, ya literally gotta death threat delivered ta yer desk.”</p>
<p>“President?” The soft voice of your secretary broke the tension in the air, momentarily releasing you from the rage that had broiled up within you. “Have you finished already? Would you like me to escort him to the exit?”</p>
<p>“Sawada, finish up with the client please,” you instructed as you dragged Atsumu across the hallway to your office. Your secretary pushed aside the papers in front of her and wordlessly nodded, quickly pulling open a drawer to grab the agreements she had printed for you in advance. “Thank you, sorry about that.”</p>
<p>“This is just my job,” she replied courteously as she got up from her chair and walked away from her desk. She looked over at Atsumu, who had been trying to pry your hands off of his shirt collar, and frowned. “It’s unfortunate that Miya-san interrupted like that. I’m sorry I let that happen.”</p>
<p>You smiled and shook your head, tightening your hold on Atsumu. “Don’t worry about it, Sawada. It’s on him, not you,” you laughed. Your secretary quickly bowed and headed over to the meeting room as you pulled open your office door and threw Atsumu inside. He faltered for a second, but quickly regained his balance and bounced back up against you, trapping you with your back to the wall.</p>
<p>“Why do you even have to be here all the time? I’m a grown ass woman! I don’t see why I need you,” you jabbed a finger into his chest to push him back, “babying me all the time!”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t have ta if ya’d just stop runnin’ loose all over the damn place,” he screamed back, his brows so uncharacteristically knit that you couldn’t help but wonder if the person you had been with all week was the same as the one in front of you now. “Always creatin’ a fuckin’ mess fer me ta clean up. What am I, yer maid?”</p>
<p>“Well I didn’t ask for you to clean up my messes, did I? I asked you to be a bodyguard, and a fucking bodyguard doesn’t fucking put their nose in places they don’t belong in!”</p>
<p>He scoffed, an incredulous expression finding its way onto his face. “Well excuse me fer not wantin’ ya to, I dunno, fuckin’ <em>die</em>,” he retorted, flinging his arms in the air.</p>
<p>You tutted back in response, your nose scrunching up in disapproval. “You just seem to only care about wanting to get in the way of me working,” you accused, raising your voice in anger. “I’m not going to die! No one’s made a move on me all week! <em>You’re clearly not needed!</em>”</p>
<p>Atsumu opened his mouth, but rather than the retort you had anticipated, nothing but air passed through. Wordlessly, he closed his mouth and walked back over to the sofa to pick up his jacket, never making a single sound. No curses muttered under his breath, no sound of his footsteps —not even a rustle of the clothes he had on.</p>
<p>“Have fun then,” he sneered facing the door as he pushed down on the door handle and walked out of the room, his dress shoes clicking angrily down the hallway.</p>
<p>You sat back down on your chair, looking listlessly up at the ceiling as your hand pinched on your nose bridge. It was for the best —you needed the time alone to focus on your work. Atsumu would come back; he always would. It’d all be fine.</p>
<p>Your eyes glanced over to the pitcher of water nestled in the crook of the room. <em>Water</em>, you needed water. You made your way over and clumsily grabbed for a nearby glass, trying your best to fill it up as you tried to subdue the adrenaline in your veins that made your hands shake uncontrollably.</p>
<p><em>You? Create a mess?</em> You heaved out another grunt of frustration. <em>If anyone made a mess, it was that fucking waste of space.</em> You felt the cool water of the pitcher splash onto your hand.</p>
<p>“Shit,” you swore as the water splattered onto the ground next to your shoes. You bit down on your lip as you tried again to steady your hand, but when droplets of water returned back onto your skin, you slammed the pitcher back onto the counter and threw the glass onto the floor, the object shattering into hundreds of fractals as it made contact with the wooden flooring.</p>
<p>“Fuck,” you feebly muttered again under your breath as you crouched down to pick up the shards. You winced as you felt a sharp pain against the back of your hand, a warm trickle crawling its way down the length of your skin along the direction of gravity.</p>
<p>You pulled back your hand to inspect the cut, smudging away the oozing blood to uncover the location of the wound. A soft <em>click </em>from the side caught your attention, and you looked up to find your secretary standing by the doorway.</p>
<p>“Kita Shinsuke dropped by,” she announced, her hand against the door to prop it open as she looked around the room in search for you. “He’s waiting in the meeting room right now.” Her eyes widened as they landed onto your crouched form, and she hastily ran over from the door to where you were. “President, you’re bleeding. What happened? Are you okay?”</p>
<p>“Dropped a glass onto the floor and tried to pick it up,” you mumbled as you watched her press a paper towel against your wound to stop the bleeding.</p>
<p>“Hold onto this with even pressure, President. I’m going to fetch a bandaid for you.”</p>
<p>You nodded, your eyes trailing Sawada’s frantic form as she rushed to the other side of the room and rummaged through the drawers to find the box of assorted bandaids. She hurried back, ripping off the lid and pulling out a bandaid in one fluid motion as she gestured for you to lift up the paper towel.</p>
<p>“That should do it,” she said as she pressed firmly against the edges of the cloth to seal the gaps shut. She looked around with a frown as she released your hand. “Miya-san is out right now?</p>
<p>You shrugged as you got back up and walked over to the door, remembering the message she had originally come in to deliver. “Beats me,” you scowled as you pressed down on the handle and pulled open the door to let in the light from the corridor. You stopped in your tracks as you turned your head around to face your secretary.</p>
<p>“Sawada, do you think I’m always creating a mess for you?”</p>
<p>She looked up from where she had crouched down on the floor and shook her head. “No, you hold your own very well, President.”</p>
<p>“Maybe I should help out with that first. Can you let Kita know I’ll be late?”</p>
<p>She frowned and shook her head. “Please go, President. I don’t mind cleaning up.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>You pushed against the heavy wooden doors of the conference room for the third time today, pressing the weight of your body against your palms to thrust the doors open. The natural light that had spilled in through the large glass windows running from ground to ceiling earlier was now obscured by the clouds propagating in the domain of the sky, casting a dark shadow in the room. You reached a hand around the doorway for the light switch, tapping quickly on the button to light up the room in artificial fluorescent lighting.</p>
<p>“Kita, I didn’t know you were in the area today,” you laughed as you walked towards the center of the room, turning your head over to the right where Kita always sat.</p>
<p>Yet rather than the familiar greeting —a light chuckle, an uncrossing of the legs, a creak of the chair as he leaned forward in his seat— that Kita always directed towards you when the two of you were reunited, you were met with silence instead.</p>
<p>“Kita?”</p>
<p>With a frown, you looked around the room and realized that your friend was nowhere in sight. There was no trace of the calm man with a penchant for draping his coat over his shoulder; no sign of the friendly smile he always greeted you with when he saw you.</p>
<p>You heard the door shut behind you, followed by the sharp <em>click</em> of the lock.</p>
<p>Your eyes widened. <em>A locked room</em>.</p>
<p>You twisted your body around to turn towards the door, but was caught in place by a pair of strong arms pinning you against their chest. You opened your mouth to scream, but the person behind you slapped a hand over your mouth, muffling any cry for help you had attempted to ring out.</p>
<p>A burning pain singed at your airways with each breath that you took, a lingering aftertaste of acetone and something sweet settling at the back of your tongue. <em>Chloroform?</em> You held your breath —you couldn’t keep breathing it in if you wanted a chance to escape.</p>
<p>You struggled in your assailant’s hold, pushing against their chest with your shoulders to try and wriggle out to no avail. All that your attempt had managed was to have whoever was behind you —taller than you judging by the way their breath fanned the top of your head— tighten their grip on your mouth, pressing the white cloth in their hands closer against your airway, while digging their forearms into your torso to secure you in their hold.</p>
<p>You felt a tremble in your knees, your legs slowly starting to lose their strength, and you felt your consciousness beginning to slip out of your own grasp. What if… What if you just gave in? Just let whoever this was drag you to wherever?</p>
<p>
  <em>No.</em>
</p>
<p>Your eyes snapped back into focus. No, you couldn’t give up without a fight. Even if they had your upper body pinned against them and your head locked into place with their hold, you still had access to your limbs.</p>
<p>You raised your hands up, the joints in your finger locking into place as you clawed at the figure’s forearm. Your nail hooked onto the edge of a sharp surface —something cold, metal perhaps— as your finger pads landed on the dark fabric of what must have been their sleeve, and you forcefully scratched down, yanking the object down with you.</p>
<p>The metal object clattered against the floor, and a low voice cursed out.</p>
<p><em>You knew that voice</em>, you thought with a gasp. Your eyes widened as your airways were once again set ablaze by the solvent on the cloth, your legs giving out as you dropped your arms against your side.</p>
<p><em>Bad move</em>. Your brain overrode all warnings and alerts, bypassing all reasoning and logic, to signal for your intercostal muscles to expand as you unwillingly drew in another breath, exchanging carbon dioxide for the sweet-smelling compound.</p>
<p>“Oh yes, breathe harder,” your assailant laughed as you limped against their broad chest. “That’s industrial grade chloroform you’re inhaling right now.”</p>
<p>Your vision flashed pink, followed by black dots slowly dotting the periphery of your visual field.</p>
<p>
  <em>Atsumu was right.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>You really did leave a mess, didn’t you?</em>
</p>
<p>And then your world turned black.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Grim Reaper's Dance Part I</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter contains <b>swearing, drugs, violence, blood, guns, and mentions of death</b></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Black leather dress shoes danced across the polished obsidian marble of the floor as Atsumu paced back and forth in the elevator lobby with one hand pressing his phone against his ear and the other curled against his hip. The crisp clicks of his heel resounded loudly against the walls of the hollowed out section of the corridor as he waited impatiently for the person on the other end to pick up.</p><p>“There’s been a change in the situation,” he informed, speaking into the receiver of his phone with an uncharacteristic sense of seriousness. His hand went up to the Windsor centered under his collar, and he tugged at the knot to loosen the grip the tie had on his throat. He huffed out defeatedly as he gestured wildly with his free hand, clearly distressed by the response from the person on the other end.</p><p>“Got chased out by her,” he explained, shoving his hand into his pant pocket. “She even swore at my face and everything too.” </p><p>“Did you annoy her too much?” </p><p>Atsumu belted out a sarcastic laugh before rolling his eyes with a shake of his head. “Haha, Kita-san, very funny, but no. I’ve been annoying her all week, why would she choose to explode now all of a sudden?” He paused, biting down on his bottom lip as he recounted the scene in his head —the anger flaring in your eyes, the death grip you had on his shirt collar.</p><p>“It’s unsettling to say the least,” he added on.</p><p>Kita dryly chuckled from his side of the call, eliciting a frustrated groan from the blond. “I’ve heard of a drug that could inc—”</p><p>A slam of the fire door at the end of the hallway ripped Atsumu’s attention away from his phone and back to his surroundings. He scrambled over to the staircase with his phone clutched tight in his hand, ignoring Kita’s calls of his name as he peeked through the window of the heavy door separating the air-conditioned hallway from the humid stairwell. </p><p>
  <em>“(f/n).” </em>
</p><p>Your name slipped out of Atsumu’s mouth as he watched as two figures clad in black ran into the freight elevator with a suspiciously large duffle bag in tow, impatiently jamming on the elevator panel to close the doors. </p><p>“Kita-san, I’ll call you b—”</p><p>“—Atsumu.” Kita interrupted, his voice now louder and more authoritative than before.</p><p>“Kita-san,” Atsumu snapped back, irritation slowly manifesting in the tone behind his words. “(f/n)’s in trouble. I need to go.” </p><p>“This could be the only chance we’ll ever get.” </p><p>Atsumu stayed silent as he stood still in his spot, his nostrils flaring from the quiet anger broiling up within him. </p><p>“I’m (f/n)’s bodyguard,” he started slowly, an eerie calmness now overtaking his voice. “I need to protect her.” </p><p>“You know she’s more useful to them alive. Let them take her.” </p><p>Atsumu didn’t respond, opting to savor the silence on the line as he slipped back into the warmly lit hallway of the office floor. </p><p>“Atsumu, you know what you need to do, don’t you?” Kita asked, his voice monotone and aloof as he clarified his command with his subordinate. “Wait an hour.” </p><p>The blond clicked his tongue as he walked over to stand in front of the double doors of the conference room. “Fine. But just so you know, I don’t like it one bit,” he snarled, ripping his phone from his ear and tapping forcefully on the glass screen to end the call before shoving the device back into his pant pocket. </p><p>He ran a hand through his styled hair as he let out a deep breath, his eyes closed as he tried to steady his accelerating heartbeat. One hour. He just had to wait one hour.</p><p>Just sixty minutes; a mere thirty-six hundred seconds. </p><p>And then he would be able to bust down the door and tell you that you owed him a coffee for the fall he took for you earlier today —that a coffee date would be the least you could do for his troubles.</p><p>His eyes opened in a snap as he looked back up to the wooden door in front of him. With a shake of his head, he pressed down on the handle and pushed open the door.A cold draft in the room sent a chill racing down his spine, though he showed no sign of having been bothered by it and instead nonchalantly strolled into the room with a hand tucked in his pocket. </p><p>He looked around, taking note of the haphazardly pushed in chairs by the table. He walked over with a frown —you were always extra careful with the positioning; it wasn’t like you to leave the room so messy and disarrayed. His eyes glanced over to a scratch on the surface of the edge and he clicked his tongue in disdain as he ran a finger over the marred surface, his fingertips gliding over the ridges of the lifted wood.</p><p>Signs of struggle. You had tried to fight back.</p><p>He took a step back, glancing down at his watch. Forty-three minutes remained. Forty-three minutes before he could come and tell you that he “told you so” and lovingly ridicule the way your eyes would narrow and how your eyebrows knit together as you smacked him on the shoulder. </p><p>His thoughts were cut short by an item tucked beside the leg of the table, the stray rays of sunlight reflecting off the metallic surface catching his attention. He crouched down into a squat and picked up the object with two fingers, holding it up against the light to get a clearer look. </p><p>“Ya couldn’t have made it a <em>bit</em> harder ta find ya?” he scoffed, standing back up to his full height. “Amateurs. A whole fuckin’ bunch of complete utter <em>amateurs</em>.”</p><p>He juggled the object in his hands, the cold metal tumbling from one hand to the other, before pocketing the gaudy golden pin into his coat pocket.</p><p>
  <em>Forty-two minutes and thirty-seven seconds remaining.</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>Atsumu stepped out of the lift the moment the doors opened, setting foot into the humid underground of the parking lot with an impassive expression on his face. With a black backpack slung across one shoulder, he rolled up the sleeves of the black dress shirt he had on as he walked straight ahead down the path before taking a right and turning around a pillar to head over to where a jet black YZF-R1M was parked. </p><p>“Oh how I missed ya,” he muttered with a soft grin as his hand reached out towards the motorbike, sliding it over the polished surface as he walked over to the seat.</p><p>He kicked a leg up and over the metal body to straddle the sleek sport bike between his legs, and he dug through his trouser pockets for his keys. He stabbed the metal into the ignition cylinder, giving it a forceful turn as soon as the key hit the bottom of the lock while reaching over with his other hand to flip the switch on the side of the handlebar to bring the sport bike to life. </p><p>As the needle on the temperature gauge climbed steadily as the engine warmed up, Atsumu relaxed into the seat of the bike and slung his backpack in front to rest on his lap, unzipping the main compartment and bringing out the black helmet he kept inside. With his other hand, he dug through the side compartment, pulling out a bluetooth earpiece that he then hooked single handedly onto his outer ear. </p><p>He placed his thumb on top of the panel in the cockpit underneath the wind shield and a light flashed across the surface, scanning his thumbprint with a low hum. </p><p>“Welcome back, Miya-sama,” a voice spoke evenly over his earpiece as the visor of his helmet flashed his name into his eyes. He lifted his hand off the fingerprint scanner as he looked around the display, taking note of the map at the upper right hand quadrant of the screen.</p><p>“GPS tracking, please.” </p><p>The visor of his helmet lit up in a soft green light, and a set of blue numbers appeared at the center of his visual field. </p><p>“Coordinates as shown. Calculating the quickest route possible.” </p><p>Atsumu’s right hand reached up to press against the edges of the helmet’s visor, and let go to allow the plastic to rise up when he heard the soft <em>click</em> of the mechanism. Reaching back down into his backpack, he dug around the front pocket until his hand brushed across the familiar leather material he had been scavenging for, and pulled out a pair of black leather gloves from the compartment. He zipped the pocket back up with his free hand, slung the bag back around his shoulder and slipped the strap over his other arm to secure it in place in preparation for his trip.</p><p>“Incoming call from Kita-sama,” the monotone voice announced into his earpiece. Atsumu let out a low sigh as he slipped on his left glove, pulling at the bottom to mold the fabric against the crevices of his hand. </p><p>“Accept call,” he muttered grudgingly, his gloved hand now clutching onto its counterpart.</p><p>“Atsumu.” Kita’s smooth voice sounded over the earpiece, his tone sharp and purposeful. </p><p>“Kita-san,” Atsumu acknowledged in return as he slipped the other glove on. </p><p>“I take it you have found their base?” </p><p>Atsumu grunted in response as he secured the velcro at the wrist of his gloves. He leaned down against the bike, his torso resting on the frame of the vehicle. “Headin’ there now.” </p><p>“Atsumu, you need to come in for the briefing first.” </p><p>His right foot stepped up onto the foot peg as his left kicked up to shift the gear up to “1”. As the bike started to move, he twisted the throttle to accelerate, and kicked the gear up another notch as the bike picked up in speed. </p><p>“Sorry boss, gotta pain-in-the-ass princess ta save.”</p><p>Atsumu twisted the throttle again, leaning further down against the body of the bike as he shifted the engine into the third gear and zipped through the parking lot, whizzing around the pillars and parked vehicles as he made his way back up to the surface of the busy streets of Tokyo.</p><p>“Atsumu—”</p><p>“End call, please.”</p>
<hr/><p>It was the incessant ringing in your ears that had caught your attention first: the high-pitched pulsations that seemed to reach the depths of your mind with such clarity that it drowned out the rest of the world. You were here and yet, at the same time, you were not —it was as if your head and your mind were disconnected from the rest of your body, encapsulated by some unnatural artificial force field.</p><p>Olfaction returned to you next, followed quickly by pain. As you took in another breath, the burning sensation brought about by the distinct scent of rubbing alcohol registered in your mind and you fought back the urge to cough out reflexively. </p><p>Pain —it took over every fleeting thought in your mind. It permeated your airways and soon found its way infiltrating the barriers of your brain to wrench the control out of your hands and strike you with shockwave after shockwave of mind-ripping torment. You winced, your head rocking back and forth as you tried to raise your hands up to your temples to assuage the tormenting affliction, but rather than the smooth coordinated movement you had expected, you were met with resistance instead. Your hands were bound at the wrist, the string tying it up so tight that the slightest of movements would dig the string deeper into your joints and lift off the surface layer of skin. </p><p>Your eyes shot wide open from the sudden searing pain shooting up from your wrists, and your lungs gasped instinctively for air as your mind crashed back down to reality. </p><p>“I wouldn’t move around that much if I were you,” a husky voice advised from the side. “That was <em>quite</em> a bit of chloroform that you inhaled back there.”</p><p>You turned over and nearly snorted at the sight before you. Sitting with his legs crossed with one arm resting across his chest and the other scrolling idly through his phone was none other than Nakashima himself. He looked away from his screen to glance over at you, his emerald eyes dull and uninterested. Your eyes narrowed as you glared at the man, and with an unamused shrug, he diverted his full attention back to the phone screen in front of him. </p><p><em>I should have known</em>. How foolish you had been —the red flags you had turned a blind eye tohad been littered all throughout the whole ordeal. The sudden change of heart, the jabs he had kept throwing underhandedly at Inarizaki… <em>Atsumu’s response</em>…</p><p>You felt a pang of guilt strike through your chest. You <em>knew </em>you should have listened to him… so why hadn’t you in that moment? </p><p>You watched as Nakashima’s expression passed through both happiness and grief as his thumb continued to scroll through his phone, the laces of his shoes clattering against the brown leather of the body as his foot bopped up and down to match his scrolling pace. </p><p><em>It had to be him, right? It had to have been him who had knocked you out in the conference room</em>. Your eyes trailed up his matching maroon suit —tapered perfectly for his lean form. It had to be him, and yet there wasn’t even the slightest wrinkle in the freshly pressed fabric of his trousers. You gnawed on your lower lip as your brows knit into a tighter frown, perplexed by the puzzle that had been presented in front of you. </p><p>
  <em>But what could he possibly have to gain from this?</em>
</p><p>You ripped your gaze away from the brunet as you surveyed your surroundings: it seemed like a newly built office space from what you had noticed thus far. The windows behind you had a row of large yellow X’s taped on, the plastic covering to protect the glass against scratches still clinging onto its surface. The room smelled like a mixture of newly cut wood and freshly dried paint, and when you squinted at the wall you were leaning against, you swore you could make out the faint pencil marks marking the location of the wiring underneath from the thin layer of white paint that feebly tried to cover it. </p><p><em>Wherever they had taken you was clearly an in-construction office space</em>, you surmised.</p><p>But <em>where</em> you couldn’t figure out. You were certain it wasn’t Smith Corporation —no, just like the golden pin that all their employees wore on their outerwear, the company boasted a very much completed skyscraper of a building as their headquarters. You glanced around the capacious interior again, analyzing the design of the room you were in. It was contemporary: liberal usage of glass and light colored wood, a silver metallic door dividing your space from the rest of the floor. You’d guess that this belonged to a start-up like yours, but which one you weren’t sure —there were easily a couple hundred of them in the country alone. </p><p>If Smith Corporation was working with a collaborator to kidnap you, who else exactly was involved in this? This must have been an inside job —there was no way that Nakashima would have been able to enter into the conference room himself not to mention transport you undetected out of the building. It had to have been someone with unrestricted access… Someone who could maneuver around the security measures set up in the building as they pleased.</p><p>Was it the security guard on duty on your floor? But he seemed like a nice person —you’ve met his wife on multiple occasions and had always gotten along with both of them. He had always smiled at you when you passed him in the hallway —even asked you about your day in some cases. Was it possible that someone so kind and so seemingly loyal had put on an act all this time? </p><p>You wriggled in your restraints as you tried to loosen the rope on your wrists, gritting your teeth as your breath hitched in response to the burning pain from the rough material rubbing your skin raw. In spite of your best efforts, all you had managed to achieve was the pulsating torment at your joints each time you so much as breathed. Your shoulders relaxed as you gave up the fight and rested your head against the cold concrete wall: there was no way you would be able to break free from captivity alone.  </p><p>Your eyes glanced up at the ceiling as your thoughts jumped from synapse to synapse, desperately trying to formulate some semblance of a plan for escape. In this twisted game of lies you had suddenly found yourself in where you couldn’t differentiate friend from foe, your options were limited with your hands, quite literally given your current condition, tied behind your back. You couldn’t trust anyone at this point —<em>everyone </em>was an enemy.</p><p>Everyone but Atsumu, that was. </p><p>Atsumu would come. You knew he would. You <em>trusted</em> him to.</p><p>
  <em>You just had to stall for long enough to give him enough time to get here.</em>
</p><p>Your eyes found their way back to the maroon-clad man sitting in front of you, wondering in your mind just how he fit into the grander scheme of things. You <em>could</em> just sit quietly with your head against the wall as you watched him habitually refresh and scroll through what probably was his social media feed and wait for Atsumu to come save you… </p><p>Or you could take matters into your own hands and gather information to figure out <em>what</em> exactly was going on. You swallowed a gulp and straightened your back, shifting in your spot to look Nakashima dead in the eye.</p><p>“So are you going to kill me?” </p><p>Nakashima clicked the side button on his phone and dropped the device into his pocket. “Kill you?” he asked as he stood up from his chair to make his way over to you —the heels of his polished dress shoes clacking along the marble-tiled flooring of the room.</p><p>“I didn’t want to have to do this the hard way, you know. I gave you an out when we talked earlier,” Nakashima continued, crouching down to your eye level to brush the stray strands of hair out of your face. </p><p>“The way out being to sleep with you?” you chortled in laughter, leaning back against the wall. “I personally prefer <em>this</em> a little more, honestly.” You raised a shoulder up to shift his attention to your bound wrists behind you to emphasize your point.</p><p>Nakashima stood back up as his hand reached for the sleeves of his coat. You frowned, having noticed that one of his golden ornate cufflinks from before had gone missing. </p><p><em>If it’s Atsumu, he’ll figure it out</em>. You narrowed your eyes and glanced back up at the man. </p><p>“You should’ve just cooperated with Smith, (l/n).” </p><p>“No one should have unrestricted access to that level of tech and you know it,” you spat out. “I can’t imagine any good use for it.” You watched as Nakashima’s face grimaced, and the pieces suddenly fell into place for you. </p><p>
  <em>Smith Corp must have sent the threat because they had something to hide.</em>
</p><p>You tilted your head up and looked at the man with a sneer. “How much do you guys know about CIPHER?” </p><p>“Enough.” Nakashima stood back up, picking a stray piece of lint off of his suit and flicking it off to the side. His green eyes met yours in a scowl from above as he folded his arms across his chest. “I know that CIPHER’s actually a pet project of the Ministry of Defense, and I also know that the merge with Inarizaki was to fuse together the legal data housed by the government with the underground sources from those damn foxes.” He spun around his heel to return back to his chair, taking a seat with his chin resting in his palm. “The government’s secret code really isn’t that much of a secret to be quite frank.”</p><p>DNA could be shared by twins, and fingerprints were easy to forge. Where there was a will to cover up a crime there existed a way. Voiceprints on the other hand were unique, with subtle differences ranging from the tone of voice to the choice of words. CIPHER was meant to equip the nation with the ability to discern the truth from the lies —the ability to arm the laws of the court with evidence to enforce objective, unbiased justice and lead the country into a new era of safety. The merger was supposed to equip the AI with ears in places where the sun would not reach, shining a light to the underworld and protecting all branches of society across both white and black and the shades in-between.</p><p>But how did Nakashima know so much? You were supposed to be the only living soul outside of the department who knew about the collaboration. Where and <em>how </em>did he come across this much information?</p><p>And more importantly, <em>how did he know about Inarizaki’s true involvement as well?</em> </p><p>“That’s some big talk about Inarizaki,” you calmly noted following a long pause. You raised an eyebrow up at the man, as if beckoning him to tell you more.  </p><p>“You can figure it out if you open your eyes. Inarizaki is everywhere and nowhere at once.” He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up into a disheveled mess. “Have you ever wondered where they came from? Certainly not from humble beginnings, that’s for sure. It was as if they had appeared out of thin air one day and claimed a major stake in the corporate world out of nowhere.”</p><p>“That’s all just pointless conjecture founded upon baseless rumors.” You watched as Nakashima shrugged into his chair, his legs now crossed as he looked at you through half-lidded eyes —as if he was inviting you to prove him wrong. </p><p>You clenched down hard on your jaw as your lips disappeared into a tight line; he was right, and you had no explanation to defend Inarizaki at all. It was as he said: Inarizaki is everywhere and nowhere at once —all seeing and all knowing despite never intervening themselves. </p><p>Truthfully you weren’t sure <em>why</em> the Ministry had insisted on going through with the partnership with Inarizaki —after all, the only reason you had accepted was because they had been sending messenger after messenger to sway you to agree— and you knew that Kita had only approached you following prompting from your contractor, but that was a problem for later. It was a problem to mull over <em>if</em> you managed to get out of this mess alive.</p><p>Besides, Atsumu worked for Inarizaki, and you knew you could trust Atsumu.</p><p>You just had to stall for a little longer in the meantime.</p><p>“Why do you know so much about CIPHER, though? I can’t imagine a low-level associate like you being important enough to use it, and I’m still struggling to understand why you’ve been roped into kidnapping me —a government asset.” You watched as Nakashima squirmed in his seat, his nostrils flaring and his face reddening from anger, as the edge of your lip raised up into a smirk. “You do know that if this fails, you’ll be in some hot water, right? And you do realize that Smith wouldn’t even bat an eyelash if you were to be locked away for the rest of your life, right?” </p><p>You watched with a satisfied grin as Nakashima’s right eye twitched and he suddenly clambered out of his chair, whipping out a handgun from underneath his coat. “You say that again <em>bitch,</em>” he jeered, venom dripping off the word as he fought the tremors in his hands to hold the barrel in front of you. “You’re not in a position to talk back.” </p><p>You let out a bitter laugh as you leaned your head closer to him, as if <em>inviting</em> him to shoot. </p><p>“But aren’t I? I’m the only one who knows anything about CIPHER. You <em>need</em> me alive. If you kill me, then it’s game over for you,” you mocked, watching Nakashima’s frenzied expression grow more and more frantic by the second, his thumb hesitantly hovering over the safety of the gun in his hand. “Face it, you have no choice but to listen to my demands if you’re to get anything out of this… <em>interrogation</em> of yours.” </p><p><em>Yes, you just needed to keep buying more time</em>. </p><p>“Put the gun down, Nakashima,” a curt voice interrupted. You watched as the brunet’s eyes widened in absolute terror as a look of recognition flashed across his face, and he quickly lowered his hand to withdraw the muzzle from your forehead, returning the pistol back into its holster. He turned around over to face the door, bowing deeply at the person who had just arrived. </p><p>“And to answer your question from earlier, it’s both a yes <em>and</em> a no,” the figure by the door announced, the crisp sound of heels clicking against the tiled flooring growing louder as they walked into the room. You looked up, your fists curled and your jaw clenched down hard in silent rage.</p><p>“Sawada.”</p><p><em>Keep your friends close, but enemies even closer, huh? </em>You really should’ve guessed this much. You watched as the woman slowly approached you, crouching down to meet you at eye-level.</p><p>Part of you had doubted her loyalty since the arrival of the letter on your desk —after all, as your secretary, she had easy access in and out of your office at any given time. But it was in your shared experiences throughout the years, from the very inception of the company to its current success, that blinded you from the exhibition of evidence laid out before you all along, trying and succeeding without fail each time to convince you that <em>Sawada Kyouka could and should be trusted</em>. </p><p>How could you have been so naïve?</p><p>“(l/n),” she smiled politely before a look of disgust took over. “I know how to use it, and I know <em>exactly</em> what it's actually meant to be used for.” </p><p>You raised an eyebrow at Sawada’s claims.</p><p>“I find that hard to believe.”</p><p>“And I bet you find it hard to believe that I’d betray you as well, but here we are anyways,” she derided, gesturing at your situation. “How does it feel to know that I was never working for you in the first place?” she cooed, a sinister grin on full display.</p><p>“It doesn’t bother me,” you lied, staring straight into her eyes. And while your gaze remained steadily transfixed, your breaths even and rhythmic, the pain of your nails digging into the thick skin of your palm from the tightness of your fists and the rapid beating of your heart failed to escape either of your notice.</p><p>Sawada looked down at your shaking hands and smiled, licking her lips as she stood back up to her full height. “It looks like the drug works! How lovely to know,” she sang, clasping her hands together. She turned around to Nakashima and pointed at the door, gesturing for him to leave the room. “Nakashima, pass that onto—” </p><p>She stopped briefly, and a look of disappointment flashed across her face. “Oh right, he’s dead. Never mind! Write it in my own journal instead, I suppose.”  </p><p>“You drugged me?” you flabbergasted, your eyes widening to the size of saucers as Nakashima slipped out of the room from the corner of your peripheral. You squeezed your eyes tightly shut as a bolt of pain shot through your head, the hammering of your heart against your ribcage growing more and more forceful as the seconds ticked on. Your throat burned from the overwhelming thirst consuming your mind, and you could feel a thin veil of cold sweat coat the surface of your skin. With a grit of your teeth, you squeezed open an eye to cast a resentful glare at the woman you had once considered a friend.</p><p>Her hand dove into the pocket of her white pencil skirt, and she pulled out a glass vial housing a clear fluid. “In your water, actually,” she revealed, holding the label up to your face for you to read the text printed on. “Meet TOX313, a little farewell present of sorts from our top scientist. It short circuits the regions in the frontal lobe responsible for common sense and upregulates amygdala stimulation of the hypothalamus to increase stress hormone release.” She retracted her arm and brought the vial back up to her face as she smiled at the drug in her hands. </p><p>“It’s still in development to be honest, but judging from your…” she paused, glancing back at you with a smug grin, “<em>condition</em>, I’d say it works quite marvelously, wouldn’t you agree?”</p><p>“The coffee,” you faltered, the words quietly rolling off your tongue as realization hit you. “Atsumu… He drank the…” Your eyes narrowed, fury growing in your stare as you glared daggers at the woman’s joyous expression. “He knew, didn’t he? So you tried to kill him.” </p><p>“Ah yes, that was a perfected drug —one of my personal favorites. We call it ‘Salvation’ in R&amp;D just one drop <em>should</em> lead to instant death. It’s a shame he’s still alive, but I should’ve expected as much from Inarizaki,” she shrugged as she turned around and walked over to the desk, pulling open one of the drawers with her foot.</p><p>“You’re doing all this for Inarizaki?” you asked through clenched teeth, your fingernails digging in deeper to maintain your sanity. “You’d go as far as <em>murder</em> for whatever it is you’re after?”</p><p>Sawada scoffed in annoyance as she extracted a black object from the drawer and kicked it back shut with the toe of her white stilettos. </p><p>“I warned you to cut the negotiations, (l/n),” she seethed, venom dripping off of each word leaving her lips. “Your little bodyguard might have made things hard for me because he was always around, but who knew that you were silly enough to think he was annoying on purpose.” She turned around and started walking back over to you, her white stilettos clacking against the polished marble tiles of the floor in a slow, languid pace. “Guess I should thank both you and TOX313 for doing the hard work for me,” she laughed as she gave the vial in her hand a quick kiss before returning it back into her pocket.</p><p>“I don’t understand...” you mumbled, wincing in pain as the twine tying your wrists together dug into your skin with each little movement. “Then that means that since the very beginning... You had planned this all out?” </p><p>“Oh, how smart! That’s exactly it, and you wouldn’t even <em>begin</em> to believe just how cooperative you were in the entire plan,” Sawada cooed as she kneeled down onto the floor to pet you on the head, letting her fingers run through the stands before yanking hard without any notice to raise your head to look her in the eye. “I had to pretend to be all sweet and docile for four whole years! Do you have any idea how tiring that was?” </p><p>Your brows knit together in a deep frown as you studied the deranged expression inflicted on Sawada’s beautiful face. Her eyes glared wide open in delirious excitement as her smile spread to the edges of her red lips in sadistic glee. </p><p>
  <em>She could and would kill you without hesitation should you make one wrong move. </em>
</p><p>Your eyes moved past her head and towards the window to the scenery outside. The sun had since begun to set, putting you at about four hours since they had taken you assuming the day hadn’t passed yet. You couldn’t tell exactly how much longer you had before they’d formally try to extract the information they wanted out of you, but it must’ve been soon. </p><p>
  <em>You had to stall. Just a little longer. </em>
</p><p>The door handle turned, revealing the return of none other than Nakashima who then turned around and quietly closed and locked the door. You scowled as he walked over to where you and Sawada were in the room, plopping back down on the chair from earlier and crossing his legs in amusement as he watched on. </p><p>You stood a slim chance with Sawada, but now with Nakashima back in the room, there was no way for you to talk your way out of this. Judging by the way that the man in the maroon suit had taken such caution to close the door, you could safely assume that there were other occupants in the building. You glanced over at the wall across the room —they must have had back-up prepared and waiting to thwart any attempts to flee. </p><p>You clicked your tongue and wrinkled your nose as your mind made a correction to your previous statement. </p><p>
  <em>Just long enough for Atsumu to get here then. </em>
</p><p>“Why would you go that far,” you asked, your eyes narrowing as your gaze returned onto Sawada. If you had to stall, you might as well try to get more out of her as well. </p><p>“Smith recently announced their pharmaceutical subsidiary.” </p><p>You snorted. <em>Of course</em>. </p><p>“Should’ve known. Underground drugs, huh?” </p><p>Sawada shrugged. “It’s a lucrative business —even better than tech start-ups. We had one of the nation’s best scientists design a drug that left virtually no trace. It’s been <em>such</em> a great hit with the black market honestly.”</p><p>“Don’t you have a conscience?” </p><p>Sawada stood back up and bursted out into frenzied laughter, reaching up a hand to wipe off the tears rimming the edges of her eyes. </p><p>“Darling,” she choked out between laughs, “I make seven figures a year from doing nothing but sit in stupid board meetings where a bunch of fossils try to understand how to use a smartphone. I don’t <em>need</em> one.” </p><p>You recalled a previous conversation with Kita during one of your lunch outings a while back —something about Smith’s shuffling of their organizational structure. Rumor out there was that a newly appointed seventh member to the board of directors was tasked with overseeing the corporation’s pharmaceutical expansion two years ago. The two of you had scoured through every informant and every source you had, but neither one of you were able to find any leads to uncovering their identity.</p><p>
  <em>So it was her.</em>
</p><p>“Why dirty your own hands then?” </p><p>“Because Inarizaki’s got data that would have jeopardized everything and pulled it all up into the light. We can’t have that, now can we? This branch makes up more than 43% of the annual revenue alone even before the official launch. And besides, it would ruin the reputation of the company as a whole if these dealings were exposed,” she explained, waving the object in her hand in the air as she ranted on.</p><p>“You’ve got something out there you need to clean up,” you concluded. “Merging with Inarizaki’s data would give the authorities enough to work with to bring you in for questioning.” </p><p>“Unfortunately so,” she acknowledged, “fools in love always do mess things up for you sometimes. There’s just some occasions where you have to dirty your own hands for the greater good,” she sighed out dejectedly as she gave a small shake of her head.  </p><p>“Now you’re going to give me the pin to CIPHER,” she stated, her face immediately shifting into that of a poker face as she trained the gun she had been twirling in her hands straight at your face.  </p><p>“So you wanted to wipe the data, huh?” you guessed. You smirked as you noticed Sawada’s right eye twitch ever so slightly and continued, “Unfortunately, you’re going to need me alive to do that. Changes to the system require an authorization pin issued by the ministry at my request that expires within ten minutes. You <em>need</em> me alive. I know you won’t shoot.” </p><p>“If I shoot you, that would at least stop the merger. I’m still your secretary on paper, you know.”</p><p>“You’re not going to kill me,” you gibed knowingly with absolutely no hesitation evident in your voice. “You know that won’t work. They’d just go ahead without me. Face it, you <em>need</em> me alive.”</p><p>Sawada looked down at you from above with a wicked grin on her face. <em>She wouldn’t shoot. There’s no way. She wouldn’t shoot. </em></p><p>“That’s hard to say,” she said as a sadistic smile slowly climbed up to the edges of her face to complement the rancor of her words. She flicked the hammer of the gun down, disengaging the safety mechanism, and rested a steady finger against the trigger. </p><p><em>She wouldn’t shoot</em>, you laughed in your mind.<em> She wouldn’t shoot. Shewouldn’tshoot.</em></p><p>
  <em>Shewou—</em>
</p><p>Your pupils blew out in horror as you watched as Sawada braced herself for the recoil and pressed down to fire the bullet out of the barrel. </p><p>The next thing you registered in your consciousness was pain. </p><p>Absolute, unequivocal <em>pain</em>.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Uh oh.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The Grim Reaper's Dance Part II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter includes <b>swearing, violence, blood, guns, falls from tall heights</b>. THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO’S FOLLOWED ALONG WITH THIS STORY 💛😭</p><p>Watch out for the bonus chapter in the coming few weeks, and stay tuned for an announcement in the near future :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“Wait, hold up.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Atsumu paused, the rim of the long-necked bronze bottle in his hands just barely touching his lips. He shifted his weight to rest on his right leg, his right arm now digging into the wooden banister he was leaning against as he lowered the bottle down to look directly at your face.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Yes?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“So you’re telling me that you </em>
  <b>
    <em>don’t</em>
  </b>
  <em> know how to waltz?” you asked, staring at him with your face decorated by raw confusion. You rested your own bottle by the ledge of the veranda and hopped over to the center of the porch, reaching your arms out towards him to signal for him to join you.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Not sure why I needa learn how ta waltz ta protect ya, cupcake,” he chuckled, bending down to balance the glass bottle in his hand down onto the wooden planks of the patio. He walked over and placed a hand in yours as the other wrapped around your waist to rest on the small of your back, pulling you in closer to him and flooding your every thought with the cedar scent of his cologne.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You glanced up at him with an eyebrow raised, reaching down to guide his hand higher up on your back to rest on your shoulder blade instead. The blond frowned ever so slightly, and you then felt a forceful press on the back that pushed you in even closer to him, the silk of your blouse now right up against the twill of his shirt.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“If ya wanna keep starin’, feel free ta take a picture, beautiful. It’ll last longer,” he chuckled, his laughter an amused rumble in his chest. You rolled your eyes as his smile widened, and he gave a tight squeeze of your hand. “But if ya teach me how ta do this thing ya call the waltz, maybe I’ll throw in a signature too,” he added, leaning down closer until his nose just grazed yours.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh, a collector’s item I see!” you gasped in feigned astonishment as you played along. "Well, I guess I </em>
  <b>
    <em>have</em>
  </b>
  <em> to show you then,” you smiled, giving Atsumu’s hand a quick squeeze of your own before moving your left foot forward to begin the box step. </em>
</p><hr/><p>A deafening <em>BANG</em> followed by a strangled scream of absolute agony rang out from across the hallway, the echoes ricocheting along the length of the corridor walls and striking the blond man at his core. He could feel the icy chill of his blood running cold —as if he had been submerged headfirst into the depths of the Arctic ocean.</p><p>Had he been too late? Had they gotten what they wanted and had gone ahead to kill you off? His heart raced in his chest as his blood coursed through his arteries and veins at what felt like 100 miles per hour, supplying his muscles with the massive surge of energy needed to lengthen his stride and quicken his pace for the sole purpose of being next to you again.</p><p>No, he couldn’t give up just yet. Not until he confirmed with his own eyes the worst case scenario. You were smart —there was no way you would’ve given them the information so easily. He had to hold out hope.</p><p>He had to, because the alternative was a reality he didn’t want to have to face.</p><p>His attention was caught by the sound of a door slamming shut, and the soft <em>click</em> of the lock and the indistinct whispers that followed alerted him of the presence of hostile forces now in his surroundings. He halted in his stride and took a side-step over, swivelling around on his heel such that his back was now flush against the wall as he peaked out from around the corner.</p><p>
  <em>(Left foot forward)</em>
</p><p>Atsumu waited in his place as the man and woman, who he presumed must have been none other than Nakashima and your secretary, headed out of the hallway through the fire exit, his ears having picked up vague mentions of your name uttered by Sawada in a tone full of malice and contempt. He sprinted in the direction of the room that they had come out from, and without wasting a breath, twisted his torso around and delivered a forceful roundhouse kick using the torque and momentum from his movement to push through the lock mechanism. The wooden doorframe splintered apart as the door flew open, and Atsumu bursted into the room, the soles of his shoes slapping hard against the tiled flooring.</p><p>The room smelled metallic —of <em>iron</em> specifically— and he frowned when he noticed the dark pool of fluid spreading out from across the room. He jammed his elbow into the light switch by the door, and his pupils constricted to adjust to the sudden influx of light spilling into his vision.His heart rate skyrocketed upon the realization that the dark pools were the same colour as the red dahlias of betrayal, and that a familiar figure laid sprawled out unconscious in the very center, their white shirt having been stained with patches of red as they cradled their leg in their arms.</p><p><em>(Right foot side)</em> </p><p>Time seemed to slow to a standstill in that very moment, and all he could hear was the blood in his body rushing to his head as his eyes widened in sheer horror at the sight before him. His peripheral vision faded out, his visual field now limited only to the bloodied figure in the room as every cell making up his body bathed in pure adrenaline.</p><p>
  <em>No.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>No.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>NO.</em>
</p><p>This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be true. This wasn’t supposed to happen.</p><p>He took a cautious step forward, then another, taking care to align his heel to his toe, before he bursted out into a frenzied sprint to make his way over and kneel down by your side, picking you up to rest in his arms as he cradled your head in his hand. </p><p>“(f/n)?” he quavered, his voice hoarse and hands trembling in fear. He took his hand off your cheek momentarily, reaching down to your wrist to sample your pulse. To his relief, he could feel the steady —though faint— throbbing of the vessels underneath your skin. </p><p>“(f/n),” he pleaded again, this time louder, clearer —bolder. His hand returned back to its spot against your cheek as he held you closer to his chest. “C’mon, wake up and tell me ta respect yer personal space or somethin’,” he muttered under his breath, an insurmountable desperation laden in his voice.  </p><p>His hands trembled in trepidation as he swallowed back a sob. You were still alive —you could still be saved. You needed to be alive; he couldn’t let you die in his arms. You still needed to teach him how to dance the lead part in the waltz. He still needed to buy you that coffee you insisted he owed you.</p><p>He still needed to be with you— </p><p>—He didn’t want to part just yet.</p><p>“At—Atsumu?” you meekly whispered, looking up at the blond figure in your blurred vision through half-lidded eyes. </p><p>“Yes, princess, it’s yer goddamn savior. The one ya shooed away,” he laughed in relief as he squeezed hard on your hand before leaning away to help you sit back up against the wall. He tugged at the knot binding your wrists together, deftly unlacing the ends of the twine string to free you from the restraints. “Ya got no idea how relieved I am ta hear yer voice again,” he whispered tremulously as he reached up to wipe away the smeared blood on your face.</p><p>You rested a hand on your head as you felt the seed of a headache take root in your mind. “It’s Smith… It’s Nakashima and—” </p><p>“What do you mean that there’s been a breach? I thought our security system was impenetrable,” a callous feminine voice loudly raged from outside the room. </p><p>“Sawada-san, I don’t know how they did it, but they did. Someone spotted a black figure run past hallway C-6 just five minutes ago,” a low voice responded gravelly. </p><p>“Nakashima, you better <em>fucking</em> deal with it then,” came Sawada’s shrill response as her footsteps grew louder.</p><p>You looked over at Atsumu with wide eyes, your hand resting on the black broadcloth covering his biceps. “They’re coming back, we don’t have enough time,” you fretted. Atsumu turned his head towards the door, a frown etched onto his face, before looking back over at you with a small smile. </p><p>“Princess, stay here and don’t go anywhere, ‘mkay? I’ll take care of this one,” he whispered into your ear, turning to graze your cheek with his lips. You frowned in response, watching as he stood back up, cracking his neck and refastening the straps of his leather gloves in preparation for ambush. </p><p>“They shot my leg, Atsumu,” you pointed out, gesturing at the wound on your leg. “I couldn’t go anywhere even if I wanted to.” Atsumu rolled his eyes, resting a hand on his hip as he twisted back around to find you biting down hard on your lip to suppress the erupting laughter in your chest.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, yeah, ya know what I mean,” he snapped back as he rolled up the sleeves of his black dress shirt to expose his bare forearms, and then tugged at the bottom of his gloves to weld them closer to the contours of his hands.</p><p>A <em>click</em> sounded, followed by another, and then the door handle turned. </p><p>Atsumu spun back around, his hands resting on his hips, as he arched up an eyebrow; his usual smirk scrubbed clean and replaced by an inscrutable expression of indifference instead.</p><p>
  <em>(Left foot close) </em>
</p><p>“Hey Kyouka-chan,” Atsumu greeted with a friendly wave as soon as Sawada swung open the door. “Sorry, I’m gonna have ta get ya ta return (f/n)-chan ta me,” he chimed as he pointed over at you, to which you gave a small bashful wave to the woman. “She’s <em>mine</em>, and I can’t have ya hurtin’ her.”</p><p>“Miya,” Sawada spat as her hand reached just underneath her white pencil skirt. In an instant, she whipped out her handgun from the holster on her thigh, and with a trained hand, she raised the weapon in front of her, brushing her hand over the safety to unlock it. “Should’ve expected you’d come. No matter how hard I tried I could never get rid of you, you goddamn parasite.”</p><p>“Yeah,” he drawled with a light shrug. “Gotta say, yer pretty annoyin’ also. Really damn obvious, though. Yer not cut out for field work, hun. Sorry ta dash yer dreams.” He whipped out his own handgun from his holster, twirling it around weightlessly on his finger. “But ya did keep yer cover pretty well, I’ll give ya that. Was pretty hard gettin’ ya ta reveal yer evil lair.” </p><p>“Please don’t call it a lair,” growled Nakashima on the side as he ran up from behind Sawada to lunge at the blond with his fist. </p><p>
  <em>(Right foot back)</em>
</p><p>“I’ll call it what I want,” Atsumu barked back with a shit-eating grin as he expertly side-stepped to his right to dodge the brunet’s attack, twirling on his heel and bringing up his gun to aim at the man in the maroon suit in one fluid motion. He reached into his coat pocket and flashed the golden S-shaped pin at Nakashima. “Ya better stuff it before I use this as evidence against ya in court, buddy,” he threatened in a honeyed tone before dropping the metal cufflink back into his pocket. “And it’s definitely a lair. (f/n)-chan, don’t ya agree?” </p><p>“Atsumu,” you seethed through gritted teeth, the pain in your leg starting to rip you away from the iron grip you had on your common sense and, by extension, your rational thinking. “I think what this building is called is the <em>least</em> of our worries right now.” </p><p>“She’s right,” Sawada sneered, firing a shot that just grazed Atsumu on the cheek. “You should be more concerned about your current predicament. You’re one person against the many hundreds that could be in the building right now.” She rolled her head over towards you and snickered. “And you’ve got an injured little princess to take care of as well. You might as well give up right now and maybe we’ll kill you off a little less painfully,” she offered with a polite smile. </p><p>“Fair point, evil lady,” Atsumu nodded as he retracted the gun from Nakashima’s face. Just as the man’s tense shoulders visibly relaxed, Atsumu swiftly kicked a leg up and over to connect square in Nakashima’s face, knocking the tall man headfirst to the ground.</p><p>“Except I don’t plan on givin’ up,” he glowered, his eyes darkened from wrath, as he crouched down to smack Nakashima on the cheek by the back of his hand. The man remained unconscious, groaning in pain from Atsumu’s touch on the nasty red footprint that had since blossomed on his face. </p><p>“Ya sure yer feedin’ yer people well? Cause this guy was as light as a stick,” Atsumu mocked loudly as he turned the unconscious man’s face around by the chin. “Oh, but don’t worry, he’s not dead. He’s even gotta pain response! Very not dead if ya ask me,” he smiled as he got back up and turned around to face Sawada, who now had her gun trained straight at Atsumu with her phone to her ear.</p><p>Atsumu threw up his own gun and caught it with his other hand, aiming it at point-blank range to Sawada’s forehead within a split second. “I think we both know who’s gonna win in a shoot-off at this range,” he jeered, his eyes clouding over with murderous intent as his thumb disengaged the safety. </p><p>“I think so as well,” Sawada conceded as she placed her gun down onto the table next to her. Atsumu frowned as he brought his other hand up to steady his stance —this was the first time he’s seen an opponent back down in a situation like this. Something was up and he didn’t like—</p><p>“NOW!” Sawada screamed into her phone, and within a blink of an eye, armed guards rushed into the room from the door behind, taking up position around Sawada in a semicircular formation with their guns all drawn out and aimed at the smiling blond standing dead center. </p><p>Atsumu raised his gun up into the air, firing a warning shot up into the ceiling before he hurled the weapon into the face of one of the soldiers, knocking them out cold. He ran ahead to retrieve the gun, ducking and blocking the punches and kicks thrown in his direction as he made his way over to where you were at the edge of the room. </p><p>He parried an attack from the side, jumping up onto a nearby chair to gain enough height to dropkick his attacker in the shoulder. Twirling on his heel just in time to dodge a kick from another guard, his hand reached out to catch the man by the ankle, and twisted his grip to send the man spiralling down onto the floor with a loud groan.</p><p>As he looked back down at the pile of attackers now laying on the floor with a scornful scowl of disappointment, Atsumu felt a tap on the shoulder from behind, and as soon as he turned around, brass knuckles connected to his face, landing at the corner of his jaw and travelling up to his nose —the metal scraping at his skin as it moved across. He stumbled back half a step as his ears rang out and his vision blurred. The metallic taste of iron filled his mouth, and he could feel a sudden warmth trail off the corner of his mouth down to the base of his neck..</p><p>“You might be good, Miya, I’ll give you that,” Sawada gibed with a wicked smile on her face as Atsumu reached a hand up to his lips to wipe the blood from his mouth. “But even <em>you</em> can’t handle this many people at once. There’s strength, and then there’s strength in numbers,” she goaded, readjusting the metal pieces in her hands.</p><p>Atsumu blinked at the blood that was now smeared on his thumb, the stinging from what must have been a split lip drilling its way into his working memory and infesting each inch of his conscious thought. He heaved a sigh and flipped his gun around, holding it by the muzzle as he lightly hit the palm of his other hand with the grip. </p><p>“Ya got no fuckin’ clue just <em>how </em>badly I’d love ta shoot ya right now,” he sighed with a shake of his head. Before Sawada had time to react to his remark, Atsumu rapidly brought up his arm and clocked the woman in the head by the back of his gun. Her body instantly dropped down limply onto the ground as her consciousness was ripped away from her possession, the reaper having seized hold of it for himself.</p><p>The blond turned back around to face the armed mercenaries and let out a deep sigh. Atsumu reached up to his collar and undid the first three buttons, exposing the skin of his neck as he gestured for them to come at him with a coy smirk. </p><p>“So, who’s next?” he taunted, whipping out his other gun from its holster to shoot at the thighs of the incoming rush of soldiers. Within seconds of the bullet piercing through their protective gear and through the anatomical defenses of their skin, their eyes rolled back and they dropped to the floor unconscious as the tranquilizer coating the bullet mixed into their bloodstreams.</p><p>He peered down at the floor and clicked his tongue at the darkened splatters of blood on the ground, then leaped over them so as to not mess up the leather of the dress shoes he had on. Blood was hard to clean off of leather, and he had just gotten them shined recently. He didn’t feel like making the trip to the store tucked in an alleyway on the other side of town just yet, and more importantly, he wasn’t in the mood of having you lecture him about the importance of good deportment anytime soon.</p><p>“Worry about the man later! Get the woman first!” a man yelled out, raising two fingers up in the air and motioning for the platoon to head towards you instead.</p><p>“Shit,” Atsumu cursed through gritted teeth as he ran over to you, ignoring the onslaught of bullets that blindly shot in his general direction. He reached for your shirt collar and yanked hard at the scrunched up fabric in his hand to drag you over with him to take cover underneath one of the wooden desks in the room.</p><p>“I’m alright, I managed to duck in time,” you reassured him. You gasped as you saw the smeared blood on his face, your expression contorting into one of immense worry. “You’re bleeding…” </p><p>“We gotta get outta here. They’ve probably gotta whole fuckin’ army in here or somethin’...” He turned his head frantically as he scoured the room for an escape. The door was completely out of the question —guards continuously spilled into the room from the entrance, and he guessed that there was likely a whole line-up of armed personnel waiting in the hallway outside. No, he needed a more unorthodox way of escape if he were to get both you <em>and</em> him out of this mess in one piece. </p><p>“Your lip’s bleeding,” you repeated, your voice louder and clearer this time.</p><p>“Mhm, don’t worry ‘bout it,” he murmured absentmindedly as his eyes continued darting around the room. His sights landed on the metal grates nestled in the upper corner of the wall, sitting just inches away from the ceiling. It looked big enough for an adult to crawl through, but the problem was that even if he managed to haul you up, your injury wouldn’t be of any help in navigating through the vents to escape. He yanked at the collar of your shirt to pull you in directly underneath him, narrowly avoiding an incoming onslaught of bullets and shielding you from the strays as he bit on his bottom lip. No, the vents wouldn’t do at all. He’d lose the offensive in a vent, and he wouldn’t be able to properly defend you from an attack from the front, either. </p><p>He turned his head to the side, and his gaze fell onto the full length windows lining the side of the room. </p><p>Bingo. </p><p>“(f/n),” he muttered lowly into your ear from above, “do ya trust me?” </p><p>You looked up at the man with a puzzled glance. “I mean, I guess? Kind of have to in this situation,” you chuckled as you carded your fingers through his disheveled bangs, his blond hair now matted both by blood and by sweat. “You got a plan?” </p><p>“Of sorts,” he shrugged as he rolled to the side, freeing you from his cage. He dug through his pockets and brandished a spare magazine of ammunition. He waved the object at you warningly, looking at you with a worried frown. “Try not ta get hurt fer now, got it?” </p><p>“Roger,” you responded, bringing your right arm up in a mock salute. </p><p>“Ahem,” Atsumu cleared his throat as he got up from underneath the table and made his way over to stand at the center of the room, his gun now sitting in the holster he had strapped across his broad shoulders. The guards instantly moved to surround him, training their weapons at the man in the center. </p><p>
  <em>(Left foot side)</em>
</p><p>“Hey, I want ta say a lil’ somethin’ first. Feel free ta shoot after I’m done, but lemme finish first!” Atsumu cried out as he raised both his hands up in the air. “I promise I won’t attack until I’m done,” he promised, flashing an innocent smile at the mob. </p><p>“Thank you,” he crowed as he swept over to the other side of the room, leaning down at one of the men until his face was mere inches away from his. “Well, all I’ve gotta say is…” </p><p>Atsumu’s hand snapped up to his holster and brought the muzzle of his gun straight at the man’s face in an instant. “<b>Yer gonna die, and yer gonna die</b>,” he boldly declared as he waltzed along the circumference of the circle, pointing at the faces glaring in his direction. He clicked his tongue and wagged his finger, turning around to point at a guard standing directly behind him. </p><p>“I said don’t shoot until I’m done, sheesh. I’m not gonna shoot either. This is fer theatrics, ‘mkay?”</p><p>The man lowered his weapon, resting the muzzle of his rifle onto the ground. Atsumu smiled and gave a small nod to the guard before turning back around to stalk around the circle from where he left off. </p><p>“As I was saying, <b>yer gonna die, and yer gonna die,</b>” Atsumu restated as he repeated the motion from earlier before turning the weapon around to point it at his own face. “<b>I’m gonna die even</b>.” He twirled the pistol around and slotted it back into its holster. “Heck, we’re all goin’ to hell,” he added with a shrug. </p><p>“The fuck’s your point?” a voice yelled out from the group. </p><p>Atsumu shot a dark look in the direction the remark came from, and instantly slapped on a plastic smile as he approached the man, singling him out from the crowd. “Maybe if ya fuckin’ learnt some goddamn manners and let people finish,” he started as he grabbed at his collar, his nails digging deep into the skin of the guard’s neck, “then ya might just find out,” he enunciated as he quickly let go, sending the man tumbling back into the group. </p><p>“As I was sayin’,” he started, craning his neck over to glare at the group at large with a look so intimidating that even the monsters in the depths of Tartarus would cower down in fear. “<b>We’re all gonna die.</b> I’ve just decided,” he pulled the safety off of his gun and aimed for the large windows to his side. The crowd watched as Atsumu fired two shots in rapid succession, the bullets accelerating through the glass window to leave behind two shattered holes in its wake. </p><p>He returned the gun to his holster and held out a hand at the troops. “I’m not done yet, by the way,” he clarified as he calmly walked over to where you sat on the floor and picked you up into his arms. </p><p>“What are you doing?” you quietly hissed as you looked behind your bodyguard’s shoulder and at the group of guards surrounding you. </p><p>“It’s all part’a the plan, doll,” he reassured you. “Oh, I forgot ta ask earlier! Yer not scared of heights or anythin’ right?”</p><p>“Atsumu, what—”</p><p>“Y’know what, bein’ scared is better than bein’ dead.”</p><p>“Atsu—”</p><p>Atsumu turned back around with you in his arms and nodded at the group. </p><p>“I’ve just decided that it <b>just won’t be today</b> fer us.”</p><p>
  <em>(Right foot close) </em>
</p><p>Before the guards had the opportunity to react, Atsumu broke out into a mad dash towards the cracked bullet holes of the window with his grip on your arms and legs tightening, and angled his shoulder towards the glass. The window instantly shattered on impact, and Atsumu leaped off the edge of the floor with your head cradled protectively in his chest. </p><p>Atsumu kept his arms wrapped tight around you, holding your head in place with a steady hand as the two of you fell down headfirst from the ledge of the room. As you dived down to the ground and ramped up in velocity from the tug of gravity, the wind of the evening picked up, ruffling your clothes loudly in the dead of the night.</p><p>You squeezed your eyes shut as you braced yourself for landing on the hard cement pavement below, but rather than the bone-shattering pain you had anticipated, Atsumu and you had fallen down onto something… soft? </p><p>Your eyelids fluttered open as you surveyed your surroundings, watching as Atsumu, who had been below you and should have had his skull cracked open from the impact, jump back upright against the cushion underneath while muttering complaints about how “they had brought the older model of the air mattress”. </p><p>Your hands swiped at the material you were lying on as Atsumu looked over and crawled towards you, guiding you by the shoulder to sit upright. </p><p>“Next time you ask me if I’m trusting you in that situation, the answer is a hard no,” you sighed into your hands as relief gripped at the edges of your mind. Your fingertips pressed down on your face, the soft sensation of warm skin reassuring you that <em>yes, you were still alive</em>. </p><p>“It was only five floors, though,” he pointed out, his head tilted to the side as he looked at you in genuine confusion. “And ‘sides, we got the air mattress!”</p><p>“Do you just <em>jump </em>out of windows everyday or something?” you asked as you rested your hand on Atsumu’s lap. He looked over at you, his chocolate-brown eyes softening at the sight of your returned smile, and took your hands in his. </p><p>“Well,” he started off, his lips twisted into a knot as he racked through his head for an explanation. “ I <em>am</em> yer bodyguard and everythin’, y’know. Gotta be ready for anythin’,” he finished with a laugh as he tugged at your arm and brought you into his embrace.</p><p>He raised your clasped hands up to his lips, and dusted your knuckles with light kisses before letting go to cup your cheek with his hand. You looked into his eyes, the love and loyalty of his resolve on full display as you leaned in, closing your eyes as the distance between your lips dwindled down to a fraction of an inch.</p><p>“I hope you’re ready to submit a formal report about why you defied a superior’s orders in that case,” a calm voice interrupted. You looked up to see a silver-haired man in a grey iromontsuki kimono approaching you from the distance, his hands folded and tucked into the sleeves of his dark grey haori.</p><p>“Kita?” you called out as you separated from Atsumu and turned over to meet your friend.</p><p>“(l/n), I’m glad to see you’re alright,” Kita smiled, crouching down to meet you at eye level. He turned his head to look over at Atsumu, the warm expression from before dissolving back into a poker face as his eyes met the blond’s. </p><p>“First you go and defy orders, and then you go and risk the mark’s life by jumping out a window,” Kita pointedly stated as Atsumu turned away from the shorter man with a nervous smile, his hands gripping ever so slightly tighter on yours. Kita’s eyes trailed down to your entwined fingers and he shook his head, an exasperated sigh escaping from his lips. </p><p>“You’re lucky we followed you and had enough foresight to figure out that you’d do something crazily flashy like jump out a window. If (l/n) ended up dying, CIPHER might have fallen out of everyone’s grasps for good.”</p><p>“Hey, you would’ve done the same,” Atsumu defended himself with a pout as he helped you over to the edge of the crash cushion. </p><p>“I absolutely would not have,” Kita calmly replied as he reached out a hand to you to help you swing your feet over the ledge. You graciously whispered a thank you as Atsumu hopped off the cushion and dusted off his pants. </p><p>The silver-haired man twisted the silver band sitting on his left ring finger as he watched you take in your surroundings. Fleets of black Audis were parked along the road leading up to the entrance of the building, with agents suited up in black toiling away as they unloaded their gear from the trunks of the cars.</p><p>“I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that Inarizaki’s not an ordinary company,” Kita remarked, a small smile on his lips.  </p><p>“That much I figured out on my own,” you laughed, wincing at the pang of pain that shot through your chest from the sudden movement.</p><p>Kita chuckled as he pulled at the lapels of his haori, pointing at the white emblem embroidered into the dark fabric. “Inarizaki’s more of a family of sorts than a company. We’ve been the watchdogs of the Emperor himself for generations, quietly observing from the side and only stepping in when a threat has been identified.”</p><p>“So the merger…” you began. </p><p>“Your contacts with the ministry urged you to accept my request, didn’t they?”</p><p>You heaved a sigh and shook your head. <em>As expected from Kita. </em></p><p>“So you guys were onto Sawada since the start, huh?” </p><p>Kita shook his head as he took a seat next to you on the mat. “Unfortunately not. Atsumu managed to figure it out only after he took up his post with you,” he revealed as he nodded over at Atsumu. “But I wasn’t lying back then when I said I didn’t know who the seventh director was. We just knew that whoever they were, they’d do anything to get to CIPHER.” He turned to look at you with a wistful smile, “I couldn’t just stand by knowing that my friend’s life was in trouble. I made a bargain and set a plan into motion. I’m glad it panned out well.”</p><p>“Wait, that means that the note…” </p><p>Atsumu raised a hand up with a bashful smile on his face. “Was me,” he admitted, his face slightly flushed and embarrassed. “I snuck in before your crazy evil secretary came in to work and left the note on your table so that Kita-san could have an excuse to bring me in… Wait, why are ya givin’ me that look?!” </p><p>You shook your head and laughed, squeezing tightly on Atsumu’s hand to reassure him. “Nothing, I’m just impressed by how pretty your writing is, that’s all.” </p><p>Atsumu leaned in closer to your face, the tip of his nose barely ghosting over yours as he raised his hands up to cup your cheeks. </p><p>“There’s somethin’ prettier right in front of—”</p><p>A curt clearing of the throat interrupted Atsumu as he was about to finish his sentence, bringing the two of you back down to Earth and reminding you of the presence of your friend sitting next to you. Your cheeks reddened as you leaned back from Atsumu, laughing as you scratched at the back of your head. </p><p>Kita sighed, his wooden sandals returning back onto the pavement as he stood back up to his full height. He smoothed out the creases in his hakama, and turned around to face the two of you again. </p><p>“Anyways, I’m sure you’re already thinking about it, but bring (l/n) to the medic ward when you get back. You can tell them I sent you,” he instructed Atsumu, gesturing in the air as he spoke.</p><p>“I was gonna bring her in anyways,” he huffed. </p><p>“You can avoid pointing guns at people to hurry it up if you say my name,” Kita responded back monotonously. Atsumu sighed loudly in defeat, mumbling affirmatives in resignation. Kita’s golden eyes glanced over to you, and he tucked his hand back into the fabric of his haori.</p><p>“How does tea sound when your leg gets better?” </p><p>“That sounds lovely, I’ll look forward to it.” </p><p>Kita chuckled as he turned back around and walked ahead, taking five paces forward before stopping and looking back behind his shoulder.</p><p>“Take care, (l/n),” he said, his voice modulated and orotund. “Atsumu, make sure to treasure her properly.”</p><p>You watched as Kita followed the rest of the team into the building to apprehend the remaining members of Smith Corporation still inside, his grey-clad figure disappearing through the glass doors of the entrance.</p><p>Atsumu hopped off the edge of the mattress and walked over to stand in front of you, holding your hands in his as you looked back over at him with a smile. He slipped a hand under your knees and another under your arms, and hoisted you up to carry you towards the black Audi roadster parked on the side of the road.</p><p>“So, you ignored orders from your boss to come here, huh?” you teased as you nudged at the blond on his side. </p><p>“Yer such a pain in the ass, ya know that right? Always needin’ ta be saved and all that.” </p><p>You lightly smacked him in the chest, eliciting a light chuckle out from Atsumu. </p><p>“Stop changing the topic, you ass.” </p><p>“I’m really not,” he swore with a childish grin. </p><p>You watched quietly as his smile disappeared and was replaced by a serious frown as he fumbled for the car keys that a colleague had passed onto him. Miya Atsumu certainly did not <em>look</em> the role of a bodyguard, and he <em>definitely</em> did not act like it much most of the time either. He was prone to getting in the way of your work, and made it a personal point to interfere with every single aspect of your life.</p><p>It was hard to put your finger on what exactly to label his personality as. He was complex, multi-faceted, and <em>oh-so nuanced</em>. He never failed to distract you with his bizarre antics, but he also never failed to deliver what he promised to do.</p><p>Atsumu was a pain —a nuisance if you would— but you wouldn’t have it any other way. </p><p>“So what happens now?” you found yourself asking.</p><p>“What do ya mean?” </p><p>“I mean, you were only supposed to act as my bodyguard to protect me from whoever sent the letter. Now that that’s all been cleared up, what’s going to happen now?” </p><p>“I never really thought ‘bout that,” he mused as he looked up at the night sky. The pitch black of the clear night was lit up by the galaxies above, spilling a mirage of pink and blue hues across the skyline to paint the world below into a dream-like landscape. </p><p>“I think ma boss is <em>real</em> mad at me though,” he added, drawing out his vowels to emphasize his point. “If only there was a way fer me ta get ma contract extended with CIPHER… Do ya think ya can talk to the CEO fer me? Heard she’s a real cutie. I could get used ta seein’ her face everyday,” he smirked as he looked down at you. </p><p>You smacked him lightly on the chest as you rolled your eyes in response. “I guess I could put in a good word for you, but she might draw up a contract with an undefined end date. And I heard she’s got a bit of a temper and doesn’t like people who watch volleyball at full volume on her television.” </p><p>“Well, then I guess it’s a good thing I don’t mind bein’ the maid who cleans up yer stupid messes or the knight in shinin’ armor who saves yer sorry ass when ya get swept away,” he breathed as he looked down at your blushing face with a soft smile, his warm brown eyes soft and filled with genuine adoration. “The TV thing… we’ll figure somethin' out, but…” </p><p>He leaned in closer to you, his eyelids fluttering shut, and melded your lips with his. </p><p>“I wouldn’t mind bein’ stuck as yer bodyguard fer the rest of ma life,” he whispered in-between breaths. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This story has really taken a life of it’s own to say the least... It’s given way to a whole AU that I’ve crafted, and if there was anything that you noticed from this chapter that made you think “Wait, this wasn’t answered?” or “Wait, what is this random detail?”, it’s because it’ll be touched upon in the other stories to come. The bonus chapter will give you a glimpse of Atsumu/Reader’s life after the events of Nuanced Nuisance, and will also set up the stage for the next story :) </p><p>Thank you so much once again for reading this series 💛</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. The Problem with Emails</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter contains swearing, and Atsumu being Atsumu 😂 Scenes might be a bit suggestive! A big thank you to everyone who’s followed the series up until now 💛</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <b>To: atsumu.miya@cipher.jp<br/>
</b>
    <b>Cc:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span></b>
    <b>Bcc:</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Subject: Noise Complaints</b>
  </p>
  <p>Hello Atsumu,</p>
  <p>I hope this email finds you well.</p>
  <p>I hope to bring to your attention that the HR department has received multiple noise complaints against you in the past week as you watch the volleyball world championships in my office on my television.</p>
  <p>Here at CIPHER Technologies, we strive to create optimal working conditions for each employee in order to facilitate the extraordinary feats that are accomplished in the building. While it is great that Team Japan is, to quote you, “crushing you damn tall beanpoles,” in the tournament, I would like to remind you to be mindful of the volume of both the television and your voice.</p>
  <p>As your direct superior, I hope that you will keep into consideration the other staff members in the company and respect their desire for peace and quiet as they work to ensure the proper functionality and maintenance of the database. This can be done by not turning the television up to the maximum volume, and speaking in a quieter voice. Bluetooth headphones may be of use, and can be ordered for you should you require them. However, as bluetooth headphones are not necessary to perform the items listed in your job description, CIPHER Technologies will unfortunately not be able to reimburse you for the cost.</p>
  <p>Thank you for your understanding.</p>
  <p>Best,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>(l/n) (f/n)</p>
  <p>—</p>
  <p><strong>(l/n) (f/n)</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br/>
</span><em>Founder, President</em><br/>
CIPHER Technologies<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>1 Chome-1-2 Oshiage, Sumida City, Tokyo<br/>
(f/n).(l/n)@cipher.jp<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>Work | 03-XXXX-XXXX<br/>
Fax | 03-XXXX-XXXX</p>
</blockquote><p>For what must have been the thirty-third time today, you pulled down the screen with your thumb to refresh your email inbox as you sat semi-sitting on your bed, your back resting against the bed frame.</p><p>A new message popped in, the cursed blue circle by the side of the preview indicating its unread status. You scowled, shuffling in your spot as you rested your index and thumb on your cheekbones and let out a loud sigh.</p><p>You ignored the email sent in from the human resources department and tapped through your folders to check over your sent messages. Sitting at the very top was the email you had sent earlier in the day addressed to none other than Miya Atsumu — your pain-in-the-ass of a bodyguard and the nuisance you called a boyfriend.</p><p><em>Was this guy seriously not going to reply to your message</em>? You knew there was no way that he would have missed the message — his phone was on his person at any given time in case of an emergency with Inarizaki — and you even saw him use his phone right in front of you this afternoon when he was checking over the final scores of the volleyball match.</p><p>With an irritated grunt, you jammed your thumb down on the lock button and placed your device onto the charging pad on your nightstand. You tapped lightly on the surface of your lamp to turn the light off, and shrank into the warmth and comfort of your duvets, relishing in the cozy comfort that it had to offer.</p><p>You stared quietly at the ceiling, the blinking of your eyes in synchronization with your each and every breath as your fingers twiddled with each other under the covers. He answered his texts like a regular person, but it was always just the emails. Was it because he didn’t have his email set up on his phone? Should you help him out tomorrow morning?</p><p>A hand reached out to slip under the hollows of your back, finding its home on the side of your waist as its owner’s fingers danced along the surface of your skin. You turned in your spot to face the other figure in your bed, staring at his face with an unamused frown.</p><p>“Did you get my email?”</p><p>You could hear Atsumu’s lips widen into a smirk as your eyes readjusted to the darkness, and you felt his thumb brush over the small of your back as he readjusted his hold on you.</p><p>“Mhm,” he hummed, closing his eyes as he pulled you in closer to him, the pine wood and citrusy scent of his body wash hugging you in its embrace. You relaxed into his chest for a second, momentarily succumbing to the lulling presence of your boyfriend, before pulling away and looking back up at him with an eyebrow raised at the realization that he had just admitted to leaving you on <em>read</em>.</p><p>“Why didn’t you respond then?”</p><p>Atsumu’s eyes softened as his smirk eased into a lazy smile. He lifted his hand off your back, reaching up to cup your cheek in his palm as his thumb lightly dusted the thin skin of your face.</p><p>“Ta make some pillow talk,” he whispered huskily into your ear as he snuggled up next to your form. His hand traveled down to rest on your hip as a chill ran down the length of your spine.</p><p>“I hate you, you asshole,” you murmured with a pout, relaxing into his touch as your eyelids fluttered closed to allow sleep to take hold of your mind.</p><p>“And I love ya too,” he chuckled, entwining your legs with his as he leaned down to rest his head against yours.</p>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <b>To: atsumu.miya@cipher.jp<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span></b>
    <b>Cc:</b>
    <b>shinsuke.kita@inarizaki.jp<br/>
Bcc: </b>
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Subject: [URGENT PLEASE RESPOND] Meeting Time</b>
  </p>
  <p>Hello Atsumu,</p>
  <p>I hope this email finds you well.</p>
  <p>I am writing to inquire about your availability in the coming week. I would like to schedule a meeting sometime in the morning during the week to discuss the upcoming assignment that Inarizaki will be using CIPHER for. I believe you understand the basic framework of the platform, but Kita and I believe that it would be beneficial for you to be trained in-depth about the inner workings of the AI system.</p>
  <p>For that reason, please let me know what date works the best for you. This meeting will preface you with the background you require to understand the mission briefing that Inarizaki will be going over the week after. I anticipate that it will take about two hours at most. We will decide follow-up training times for you after the briefing session.</p>
  <p>I look forward to hearing from you soon.</p>
  <p>Best,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>(l/n) (f/n)</p>
  <p>—</p>
  <p><strong>(l/n) (f/n)</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br/>
</span><em>Founder, President</em><br/>
CIPHER Technologies<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>1 Chome-1-2 Oshiage, Sumida City, Tokyo<br/>
(f/n).(l/n)@cipher.jp<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>Work | 03-XXXX-XXXX<br/>
Fax | 03-XXXX-XXXX</p>
</blockquote><p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <b>To: (f/n).(l/n)@cipher.jp<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span></b>
    <b>Cc: shinsuke.kita@inarizaki.jp<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span></b>
    <b>Bcc:</b>
    <b></b>
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Subject: Re: [URGENT PLEASE RESPOND] Meeting Time</b>
  </p>
  <p>😎</p>
  <p>Sent from my Refridgerator</p>
</blockquote><p> </p><p>“Atsumu, catch.”</p><p>Atsumu whipped his head around just in time to register a flying red <em>textbook</em> fly in his direction. His hands snapped up to his face, his fingers encircling the spine just in time to catch the book before it smacked him square in the jaw.</p><p>“What the… ‘Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary’?” Atsumu frowned as he read the title off of the book in his hands. “(f/n), what the flyin’ <em>fuck</em> is this?” he asked, flipping through the pages with a bewildered expression on his face.</p><p>“Take it and learn how to spell,” you scolded, your hands resting firmly on your hips.</p><p>Atsumu’s eyebrow raised up in confusion for a fraction of a second before he let out a snort from having failed to stifle a laugh.</p><p>“Ya saw ma email signature, didn’t ya?” he laughed, reaching up to his right eye to wipe the stray tear that had spilled out from his outburst. He walked over behind your desk, propping himself up to sit on the ledge as he placed the dictionary down next to him.</p><p>“You purposely misspelt refrigerator?”</p><p>He shrugged, a lazy smile on his face, as he tugged at your hands to pull you from your chair to stand in front of him.</p><p>“It’s pretty funny ain’t it?” he asked, childish mischief twinkling in his warm brown eyes as his hands found their way onto your hips. “Gettin’ an email from a refrigerator who can’t spell.”</p><p>You rolled your eyes with a shake of your head as you let out a loud exhale.</p><p>“You could’ve just said a simple yes or something,” you mumbled, turning your head away to look out into the city through the floor-length windows of your office.</p><p>“Hey, ya just said ya wanted me ta reply ta yer emails, honeybun,” he pointed out. “Ya didn’t specify how.” He leaned in closer to your face, his nose just grazing yours as his hands danced further up your back. </p><p>“You are an absolute <em>nuisance</em>, you know?” you huffed, pulling him closer to you by the black necktie fastened around his shirt collar. Your eyelids fluttered shut as you tilted your head to meet his lips with your own, sampling the fresh spearmint of the gum he had been chewing as the taste rolled along the surface of your taste buds.</p><p>“And ya love that, don’t ya?” he chuckled through breaths as he rested his hand on your nape to pull you in closer to him.</p><p>“Yeah, I do,” you smiled. “Unfortunately I do.”</p>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <b>To: atsumu.miya@cipher.jp<br/>
</b>
    <b>Cc: shinsuke.kita@inarizaki.jp<br/>
</b>
    <b>Bcc:</b>
    <b></b>
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Subject: Parking Dispute</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Attached: MA_bike.png</b>
  </p>
  <p>Hello Atsumu,</p>
  <p>I hope you’ve been well since the last time we’ve spoken.</p>
  <p>I am writing to inform you that your motorcycle has been parked in the incorrect spot. You will find attached in this email a photograph of your bike on my spot from this morning. Parking spot #2345 is my assigned spot, and while I understand that its close proximity to both the elevator lobby and the exit makes it a very desirable location, I must ask you to respect the unspoken rule of the lot and park in your own spot. It is imperative you do so, as taking up someone’s spot could result in them being unable to find another parking spot and having to resort to parking offsite. This would thus introduce unneeded stress into a hardworking employee’s day, and would thereby affect their job performance overall. I kindly ask that you keep this detail in mind the next time you park in a spot that does not belong to you.</p>
  <p>I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that all employees at CIPHER Technologies have a negotiated assigned parking spot written into their contracts as a clause. If you have forgotten your parking spot number, please refer back to your welcome package at your earliest convenience to clarify the appropriate assignments.</p>
  <p>Best,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>(l/n) (f/n)</p>
  <p>—</p>
  <p><strong>(l/n) (f/n)</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br/>
</span><em>Founder, President</em><br/>
CIPHER Technologies<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>1 Chome-1-2 Oshiage, Sumida City, Tokyo<br/>
(f/n).(l/n)@cipher.jp<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>Work | 03-XXXX-XXXX<br/>
Fax | 03-XXXX-XXXX</p>
</blockquote><p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <b>To: (f/n).(l/n)@cipher.jp<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span></b>
    <b>Cc: shinsuke.kita@inarizaki.jp<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span></b>
    <b>Bcc:</b>
    <b></b>
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Subject: Re: Parking Dispute</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Attached: Miya.A_Contract2020.pdf [Download], image01.png [Download]</b>
  </p>
  <p>Dear Cupcake,</p>
  <p>How have you been? I hope that you have had a splendid week and are looking forward to the upcoming weekend. The forecast expects Tokyo to get plenty of sun — do you have plans to leave your office for once and enjoy the great weather? As someone in a role where I must maintain peak physical condition, I am an avid advocate of the health benefits that the sun has to offer.</p>
  <p>I believe that under Clause 2.7, Subsection 3A, Sub-Subsection J-12 with my contract from Inarizaki Corporation that I am entitled to a parking spot in the parking garage of the building that is not limited to a fixed spot. I understand that this may deviate from the norm, as most employees with contracts through CIPHER Technologies have a negotiated assigned parking spot, but this is not the case as outlined in the conditions of my contract. I have attached the contract with the specific clause highlighted for your convenience.</p>
  <p>As such, I will not move my YZF-R1M from the parking spot that you claim to be yours. I have attached an image file in this email to prove that I had parked the bike in spot #2345 myself. Although this is an unfortunate turn of events, and I regret being unable to resolve the matter, I believe that there is still a silver lining in this arrangement. I have brought in a spare helmet for you (Yes, the one you wore last time) and kept it with the secretary in the main lobby. If you believe that my parking has resulted in you having to park off-site, I would be more than happy to give you a ride back to our house.</p>
  <p>Thank you for your time, and I’ll pick you up at 7 tonight on the aforementioned bike.</p>
  <p>Sincerely,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>Atsumu ❤️</p>
  <p>—</p>
  <p><strong>Miya Atsumu<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span></strong><em>The Person Who Does Actual Work</em><br/>
CIPHER Technologies<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>(f/n)’s house<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
atsumu.miya@cipher.jp | atsumu.miya@inarizaki.jp<br/>
</span>Work | 78-XXXX-XXXX<br/>
Fax | 03-XXXX-XXXX</p>
</blockquote><p>“When did I agree to go out with you for dinner?” you asked, frowning as you scrolled down to the bottom of the email that Atsumu had sent you. You picked up the receiver sandwiched between your shoulder and your ear, holding it up as you simultaneously rested your head against your hand. “Can’t you ask me out on a dinner date like a normal person?”</p><p>“Ya told me ta deal with dinner,” he calmly replied over the phone.</p><p>“I told you to cook.”</p><p>A deep chortle reverberated on the other side, followed by an eruption of roaring laughter. “You think I can cook?” Atsumu wheezed through breaths.</p><p>“Can you not?”</p><p>“No,” he snorted. “I’ve gotta twin ta do that fer me.”</p><p>“Ah yes, the better Miya,” you nodded, an impish smirk growing across your face as you twirled the phone cord in your hands. “Great guy. Even greater cook.”</p><p>An uncharacteristic silence fell on the other end, and you held back a laugh as the mischievous grin on your lips grew. If it was one thing you had learnt about your boyfriend since you first met him, it was that he regarded his own twin brother as his greatest rival. Combined with Miya Atsumu’s stubbornly competitive nature… Your fingers drummed happily on your desk as the pieces you had put into place fell into play.</p><p>“What will it take ta get ya ta say that I’m the better Miya…”</p><p>You smiled, spinning around your chair to look out the windows behind your desk, marvelling at the view from the top floor of the building.</p><p>“You could move your motorcycle,” you joyously suggested.</p>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <b>To: (f/n).(l/n)@cipher.jp, atsumu.miya@cipher.jp<br/>
</b>
    <b>Cc: <br/>
</b>
    <b>Bcc: osamu.miya@inarizaki.jp</b>
    <b></b>
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Subject: Please Read at Your Earliest Convenience</b>
  </p>
  <p>Hello,</p>
  <p>Please refrain from discussing personal matters on the work email server.</p>
  <p>Cheers,<br/>
Kita Shinsuke</p>
  <p>—</p>
  <p><strong>Kita Shinsuke<br/>
</strong><em>Chief Financial Officer</em><br/>
Inarizaki Corporation<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/>
</span>3 Chome-1 Ojicho, Nada Ward, Kobe, Hyogo<br/>
shinsuke.kita@inarizaki.jp<br/>
Work | 78-XXXX-XXXX<br/>
Fax | 78-XXXX-XXXX</p>
</blockquote><p>Osamu sighed as he dragged the message in his inbox into the trash. As much as he appreciated updates on his brother and his girlfriend, he really didn’t need his work email swamped with blind carbon copies like this message. There really wasn’t any point: it wasn’t like he was going to be seeing Atsumu anytime soon anyways.</p><p>The body snuggled up next to him stirred in her sleep, peeking open an eye to glance over at his phone screen, her vision bleary and her mind still hazy.</p><p>Osamu’s lips curved up into a soft smile as he quickly locked his phone to hide his inbox from her view.</p><p>
  <em>This was his life now, after all.</em>
</p><p>“Osamu?” she asked, her voice still drunk on the promise of sleep, “Is something the matter?”</p><p>The black haired man looked down at his companion, pressing a kiss onto her forehead as he readjusted his arm to rest just underneath her neck, bringing her head closer to his chest.</p><p>“It’s nothin’,” he murmured softly, his hand finding its home on her shoulder. “It’s just ma idiot brother. Go back to sleep, ‘mkay?”</p><p>The woman yawned and nodded ever so slightly, her hair brushing against Osamu’s arm.</p><p>“I didn’t know you had a brother,” she mumbled, her eyelids fluttering shut as her breaths evened out. “What’s he like?”</p><p>Osamu turned over to drop his phone into the bottom drawer of the night stand by his bedside. He paused for a second, and then chuckled lightly.</p><p>“Well, first of all, he can’t cook for shit.”</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Osamu huh 🤔</p><p>There's a little easter egg of sorts hidden in the addresses (except for Atsumu's obviously) 😊</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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